SUNSPOTS

Aug. 11, 2020

A massive Sunspot group, AR2770, was observed recently by spaceweather.com using images of the Sun’s surface from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).

About:

  • A Sunspot is an area on the Sun that appears dark on the surface and is relatively cooler than surrounding parts.

  • These spots, some as large as 50,000 km in diameter, are the visible markers of the Sun’s magnetic field, which forms a blanket that protects the solar system from harmful cosmic radiation.

  • On the photosphere– the outer surface of the Sun which radiates heat and light– Sunspots are the areas where the star’s magnetic field is the strongest; around 2,500 times more than the Earth’s magnetic field.

  • Most Sunspots appear in groups that have their own magnetic field, whose polarity reverses during every solar cycle, which takes around 11 years. In every such cycle, the number of Sunspots increases and decreases.

  • The current solar cycle, which began in 2008, is in its ‘solar minimum’ phase, when the number of Sunspots and solar flares is at a routine low.