Sunspot (redirected from Penumbra (Sun))

sunspot

Cooler-than-average region of gas on the Sun's surface associated with strong local magnetic activity. Sunspots appear as dark spots, but only in contrast with the surrounding photosphere, which is several thousand degrees hotter. Spots several times larger than Earth are visible to the unaided eye (viewed through a filter); very small ones are hard to see even with a telescope. They come and go as part of the solar cycle, usually in pairs or groups, and may last for months; their cause appears to be related to the magnetic field reversals that occur every 11 years. The reality of these apparent flaws in the Sun was generally accepted only c. 1611. Periods of high sunspot activity are associated on Earth with brighter auroras and interference with radio signals.

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sunspot

1. any of the dark cool patches, with a diameter of up to several thousand kilometres, that appear on the surface of the sun and last about a week. They occur in approximately 11-year cycles and possess a strong magnetic field

2. Austral a small cancerous spot produced by overexposure to the sun

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sunspot [′sən‚spät]

(astronomy)

A dark area in the photosphere of the sun caused by a lowered surface temperature.

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Sunspot 

a dark formation observed in the photosphere of the sun. The diameters of sunspots can be as large as 200,000 km, and the temperatures are not greater than 4500°K. Since the temperature of the photosphere is 1,000 to 2,000 degrees higher than that of sunspots, the photosphere is two to five times brighter than the spots. The mean annual number of sunspots varies with a period of 11 years.

REFERENCE

Bray, R., and R. Loughhead. Solnechnye piatna. Moscow, 1967. (Translated from English.)