How are sunspots formed? What are they?
1 Answer
A sunspot is defined as a spot or patch appearing from time to time on the sun's surface, appearing dark by contrast with its surroundings.
Explanation:
Sunspots are dark, planet-sized regions that appear on the "surface" of the Sun. Sunspots are "dark" because they are colder than the areas around them. A large sunspot might have a temperature of about 4,000 K (about 3,700° C or 6,700° F). This is much lower than the 5,800 K (about 5,500° C or 10,000° F) temperature of the bright photosphere that surrounds the sunspots.
Sunspots are magnetic in nature. They are the places ("active regions") where the Sun's magnetic field rises up from below the Sun's surface and those magnetic regions poke through. Sunspots are darker than the surrounding areas because they are expending less energy and have a lower temperature. Sunspots often have poles ("polarity") like the south and north poles of magnets.
Sunspots are formed continuously as the Sun's magnetic field actively moves through the Sun. The sunspots have lifetimes of days or perhaps one week or a few weeks.
This link will help you out:
http://solar-center.stanford.edu/FAQ/Qspotsearth.html
