Here is a graph of the frequency of sun spots over the last 400 years

The period in the 17th century was a mini ice-age when there were virtually no sun spots.

You will notice a certain regularity to the number of sun spots, oscillating approximately every 11 years. On October 10th and 11th there were no sun spots at all. David Hathaway, who is very interested in sun spots might have said

It is a sign, the apocalypse is upon us. Run for your lives, hide under the bed.

but he is a scientist and not prone to such emotional outbursts. Instead he said

This is a sign that the solar minimum is coming, and it's coming sooner than we expected.

We weren't expecting the next solar minimum, one of those troughs on the graph above, until 2007 but it looks like it will be here in 2006.

Here is a really cool picture of the current cycle.

This is good news for those of you worried about global warmining because the sun, funnily enough, is a major source of global warming and the sun spots are the main culprits, which is why that mini ice-age happened in 17th century. It also means your satellite TV reception will be much better than normal.

Read more at NASAs website.