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Sunspot Up Close
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5/10/1998 |
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False
color picture of a sunspot taken with the National Solar Observatory's Vacuum
Tower Telescope (now redesignated as the Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope)
at the Sacramento Peak Observatory, showing features on a scale of about
100 km. |
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Credit:
Vacuum Tower Telescope, NSO, NOAO |
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Sometimes,
small regions of the Sun appear unusually dark. Visible above is a close-up
picture of a sunspot, a depression on the Sun's face that is slightly cooler
and less luminous than the rest of the Sun. The Sun's complex magnetic field
creates this cool region by inhibiting hot material from entering the spot.
Sunspots can be larger than the Earth and typically last for only a few
days. This high-resolution picture also shows clearly that the Sun's face
is a bubbling sea of separate cells of hot gas. These cells are known as
granules. A solar granule is about 1000 kilometers across and lasts about
10 minutes. After that, many granules end up exploding. |
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