Solar Week - Ask a Question

 Hi Rachael,  STEREO mission is not particularly designed to detect sunspots. But the imaging instruments on board take pictures of the Sun in four different wavelengths, where solar active regions over sunspots can be seen as bright regions.   If you mean whether STEREO can see 'sunspots' that we can't see yet ...

 Hi Julia, If you are looking for sunspots today, there isn't any on the Sun. The Sun is at the solar activity minimum right now. During the past year, we have had very few sunspots because of lack of regions with strong magnetic field. When the Sun gets closer to solar maximum, there will be many sunspots. Scientists use sunspot ...

Hi Kelly,Actually, they rarely do occur directly over the sun's equator, though there are a few. Begining at the solar minumum, sunspots start to appear at higher latitudes at both hemispheres far from the equator. When the solar cycle proceeds toward solar maximum, sunspots gradually appear near the equator from both side. We still do not fully ...

Hi,The life time of sunspots range from hours to a few months. Sunspots appear at the centers of  strong magnetic regions (called Active Regions). The magnetic fields of the Active Regions emerge from below the solar surface. Once their emerging phase complete, the active region magnetic fields spreads and weakens. When the magnetic field is ...

Hi,In fact, being a scientist is fascinating! It is all about doing what you are interested. You come up with your ideas and you do what you think is interesting, isn't that great?! It is quite opposite from being boring. If a scientist is working long hours, it is because she/he is fascinated with the topics and cannot stop thinking/working on it ...

Hi Karin,It is a good question, and I think it might make sense to begin by saying that a solar storm differs from our storm on Earth in that a solar storm has a magnetic structure. A solar storm is believed to be driven by some not fully understood magnetic force. The magnetic structure takes off from the solar surface under that force. When the ...

Hi Oliva,We are currently at the end of solar cycle 23 and beginning of 24. So multiply this by 11 years, it goes back to 253 year. We started having record of sunspot numbers since before year 1800. The eleven-year cycle was discovered in 1834 by the German astronomer Heinrich Schwabe. Actually the cyclic activity of the Sun is not exactly 11 ...

Hi Kelsie,Sunspots are located at the regions where the magnetic fields are very strong. The reason for  a sunspot to be darker than the quiet solar surface is that the temperature in the region is lower because the strong magnetic fields suppress the motion of the material, kind of freeze the material, if you like. Therefore the size of a ...

Hi,It sounds like you are asking about the Earth, but since this is solar week, I thought the questions are about the Sun.So if you are asking about the Sun, and about the solar magnetic field, the polar fields reverse about every 11 years on average, not as long as the Earth's magnetic polarity. If you are asking about the Earth, it is not my ...

Hi Mary, Sunspots closest to the poles that have been seen are at about 50 degrees north or south latitudes. That is a little over half way from the solar equator to either of the poles, and as you’d agree that is not very near the sun’s poles at all. An apparent reason for the sunspots not to appear near the poles is that the magnetic fields ...