There have been suggestions that the solar activity might continue to decline over the next couple of cycles, approaching a global minimum in the middle of the 21st century. Such global minima were discovered by the American scientist John Eddy in 1976 who named the deepest such minimum, during the years 1645 to 1715, the Maunder minimum

The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space was set up by the General Assembly in 1959 ( resolution 1472 (XIV)) to review the scope of international cooperation in peaceful uses of outer space, to devise programmes in this field to be undertaken under United Nations auspices, to encourage continued research and the dissemination of information on outer space matters, and to study legal problems arising from the exploration of outer space.

Number of Member States in the Committee: 74

The Committee has two standing Subcommittees:
+ the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee; and
+ the Legal Subcommittee.

The Committee and its two Subcommittees meet annually to consider questions put before them by the General Assembly, reports submitted to them and issues raised by the Member States. The Committee and the Subcommittees, working on the basis of consensus, make recommendations to the General Assembly. Detailed information on the work of the Committee and the Subcommittees are contained in their annual reports.