New Delhi, Jan 9: By the year 2050, the sun is expected to be dimmer and cooler. Usually, over the course of 11 years, the sun’s heart races and rests and this calm, resting stage during the 11 years is called ‘grand minimum’.

During the highest point of the 11 year cycle, the nuclear fusion at the sun’s core forces more magnetic loops high into its boiling atmosphere — ejecting more ultraviolet radiation and generating sunspots and flares. BUt when the sun is calm it radiates less ultraviolet radiations.

Physicist Dan Lubin at the University of California San Diego has been collecting the data and observing the sun’s radiations, which resulted in the estimated calculation that the sun might get dimmer over the course of time.

The study published in the Journal Astrophysical Journal Letters found that the sun is likely to be seven percent cooler. And another grand minimum is likely to be just decades away, based on the cooling spiral of recent solar cycles.

“A future grand solar minimum could slow down but not stop global warming,” the study finds.