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Last Post 10/17/2011 9:48 AM by KD Leka

Size of sunspots

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Anonymous

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10/16/2011 8:42 PM
Mike S, How come some sunspots seem to shrink, or grow, what causes this?

Terry Kucera

Basic Member

Posts:328

10/17/2011 8:13 AM
Hi Mike. That is a big area of research in solar physics. Sun spots are places where the solar magnetic field is very strong. We think sun pots are the signs on the sun's surface of 3D structures in the sun's magnetic field, so changes in sunspots can be refections of changes in these features - for instance a sunspot might initially grow because a magnetic structure is moving out. That is what they are showing in this animation: http://www.windows2univer..._mag_field_gsfc.html Other sun spots might get smaller because their magnetic fields are breaking into pieces and combining with other ones so that there is no longer a strong magnetic field any more. best regards, Terry

KD Leka

Basic Member

Posts:115

10/17/2011 9:48 AM
Hi; I'll add to Terry's response that trying to figure out if a sunspot (or a group of sunspots) is going to grow (and grow more!) is a big research area. Most sunspots and groups of sunspots are small; the ones that get our attention are big because they have a lot of magnetic energy in them. The largest sunspots will live a month or two, the smallest maybe a few days.