What is the safest way to view the Sun and its sunspots?
There are two ways to look at the Sun safely: by direct viewing, with a proper filter over the front of the telescope, or by projecting the Sun's image onto a piece of paper. They protect the eye against both visible and invisible radiations and the telescope itself against heat.
Which telescope is used to study sunspots?
Specialized tools such as spectroscopes and spectrohelioscopes are used to examine sunspots and sunspot areas.
What is the best way to study the Sun?
Scientists study the Sun number in a number of ways including ground based telescopes and satellites to obtain as much information as possible. The atmosphere of the Sun varies in temperature so a whole range of wavelengths are needed to make complete observations.
How do scientists observe the Sun?
By examining pictures of the sun in a variety of wavelengths – as is done through such telescopes as NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) and the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) -- scientists can track how particles and heat move through the ...
Why should we study sunspots?
Sunspots are often precursors to solar flares – intense outbursts of energy from the surface of the Sun – so monitoring sunspots is important to understanding why and how flares occur. Additionally, understanding the frequency of flares on other stars is one of the keys to understanding their chance of harboring life.
How do you track sunspots?
Surveying sunspots with daily hand-drawn drawings is the most basic of ways we study how solar activity rises and falls over time, and it's the basis of how we track the solar cycle.
What are solar sunspots?
Sunspots are areas that appear dark on the surface of the Sun. They appear dark because they are cooler than other parts of the Sun's surface. Solar flares are a sudden explosion of energy caused by tangling, crossing or reorganizing of magnetic field lines near sunspots.
What tools do engineers and scientists use to view and learn about the Sun?
Engineers make telescopes, imaging systems and satellites to view the Sun and its events. They also make solar panel collectors and other solar-powered devices used on Earth.
How is the sunspot related to convection in the Sun?
Magnetic field lines come out of the surface of the Sun through one sunspot, and go back in through the other. The strong magnetic field around the sunspots stops heat being moved by convection. Convection moves heat from deeper inside the Sun to the surface.
How do scientists observe the Sun's outermost layers?
There are two ways that solar telescopes can gather information from the light emitted by the sun. There are spectrometers that can simultaneously observe different wavelengths of light, generating graphs that give a composite picture of the temperature ranges in the material around the sun.
What is your observation about sun?
The Sun is an almost perfectly spherical ball of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields. It has a diameter of about 1,392,000 km, about 109 times that of Earth, and its mass (about 330,000 times that of Earth) accounts for about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System.
How do scientists take pictures of the Sun?
Those telescopes are very similar to the ones we use on the ground, but they have special filters that allow only this extreme ultraviolet light to get through. And then they have a CCD [an image sensor] where the pictures are taken.
Lesson Objectives
- Describe the layers of the Sun.
- Describe the surface features of the Sun.
Vocabulary
- chromosphere
- convection zone
- corona
- nuclear fusion
Layers of The Sun
- Internal Structure
1. The Sun’s central core is plasma with a temperature of around 27 millionoC. At such high temperatures hydrogen combines to form helium by nuclear fusion, a process that releases vast amounts of energy. This energy moves outward, towards the outer layers of the Sun. Nuclear fus… - The Outer Layers
1. The photosphereis the visible surface of the Sun, the region that emits sunlight. The photosphere is relatively cool -- only about 6,700°C. The photosphere has several different colors; oranges, yellow and reds, giving it a grainy appearance. 2. The chromosphere is a thin zone, abo…
Lesson Summary
- The mass of the Sun is 99.8% of the mass of our solar system.
- The Sun is mostly made of hydrogen with smaller amounts of helium in the form of plasma.
- The main part of the Sun has three layers: the core, radiative zone, and convection zone.
- The Sun's atmosphere also has three layers: the photosphere, the chromosphere, and the corona.
Review Questions
- In what way does the Sun support all life on Earth?
- Which two elements make up the Sun almost in entirety?
- Which process is the source of heat in the Sun and where does it take place?
- Why would human astronauts on a trip to Mars need to be concerned about solar wind? What is solar wind?
Further Reading / Supplemental Links
- To find these videos for download, check out: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/news/briefing-materials-20100421.html and http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/Gallery/SDOFirstLight.html.
- Subscribe to NASA's Goddard Shorts HD podcast: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/iTunes/f0004_index.html.
- To find these videos for download, check out: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/news/briefing-materials-20100421.html and http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/Gallery/SDOFirstLight.html.
- Subscribe to NASA's Goddard Shorts HD podcast: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/iTunes/f0004_index.html.
- To learn more about the SDO mission, visit: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/.
- To learn about an older solar mission, SOHO, see: http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/.
Points to Consider
- If something were to suddenly cause nuclear fusion to stop in the Sun, how would we know? When would we know?
- Are there any types of dangerous energy from the Sun? What might be affected by them?
- If the Sun is made of gases such as hydrogen and helium, how can it have layers?
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