The Sun occasionally enters an extended period of minimum sunspot activity. Is another minimum period coming soon?
Hot Water
Yesterday I talked about how water can form on the Moon. It might seem a bit surprising that water exists on the Moon, but it doesn’t sound like a crazy idea. What does sound crazy is the idea that there is water on the Sun’s surface, and yet we know that there is.
Wake Up Sunshine
We generally think of the Sun as a constant in our lives. It rises and sets regularly, and seems to be an unchanging sphere of brilliant light. In fact the Sun has a turbulent surface with prominences that fly off its surface, granules caused by convection in its upper layers, and even the appearance of slightly cooler regions known as sunspots.
Blemish
Sunspots are dark regions that appear on the surface of the Sun. Despite their appearance, sunspots aren’t actually dark. They are cooler than the surrounding surface, which means they are less bright. When an image of the Sun is made dim enough to view directly, either by viewing the Sun through a filter or by projecting the Sun’s image onto a surface, the cooler, dimmer sunspots appear dark.
Cycle of Stars
The Sun’s magnetic field varies over time, which means the activity of the Sun varies. The earliest observation of this cycle was seen in sunspots. We can observe similar activity in other stars by observing what are known as their H-K cycles.
Spot the Pattern
We generally think of the Sun as a constant in our lives. It rises and sets regularly, and it seems to be an unchanging sphere of brilliant light. In fact, the Sun has a turbulent surface with prominences that fly off its surface, granules caused by convection in its upper layers, and even the appearance of slightly cooler regions known as sunspots.