Understanding Sunspots
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What is a Sunspot?
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The Sun’s Visible Surface
The Lower Atmosphere
The Sun in Hydrogen-a
The Upper Atmosphere
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A Typical Sunspot in
“White Light”
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Sunspot Detail
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Sunspot Model
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Objects that are hotter are brighter. Which bulb is hotter? Which
is hotter, the sun’s surface or a sunspot? How do you know?
So, sunspots are way cool!
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But, what causes sunspots?
Like planet Earth, our Sun
has a strong magnetic field
Magnetic Winding
The sun rotates faster at its equator than at its poles. The sun’s
strong magnetic field gets wound up causing part of the fields to
rupture the surface where they cause sunspots.
Magnetic fields make cool zones.
Fast-moving charged particles are deflected by magnetic fields.
The magnetic fields of sunspots deflect hotter gases allowing
only cooler gases that experience less of this deflective force.
The 11-Year
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Sunspot Cycle
Butterfly Diagram
Associated with sunspots are
flares…
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prominences, and…
coronal mass ejections!!!
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These cause
the auroras
that we see
on Earth.
Why do we have sunspots?
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Why do we have a sunspot cycle?
What does
magnetism have
to do with
Sunspots?