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Last Post 10/23/2013 1:38 PM by Lindsay Glesener

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10/23/2013 8:14 AM
francine l (rm) whats the next nearest star in space other then our sun we can study? also, has sunspots been seen on other stars? thanks

Paulett Liewer

Basic Member

Posts:113

10/23/2013 9:48 AM
Hi Francine, The nearest star is Proxima Centauri in a group of three stars called Alpha Centauri. They are all about 4 light years away..that is, it takes light 4 years to travel from here to there. The other two stars are Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B. Alpha Centauri A is a star like out Sun (called a G class start) and so, if this has planets around it at the right distance, we might find an Earth-like planet with life there! Many, many stars have been observed to have star spots; usually, they make their presence known because they cause a variation in time in the light coming from the star. Some spots are really big compared to our Sun's sunspots. Hope this helps Paulett

Lindsay Glesener

New Member

Posts:37

10/23/2013 1:38 PM
And not only are there spots on other stars, but there are also sometimes flares on other stars that we sometimes detect at X-ray wavelengths. These are called "stellar flares." Of course, we can't study the spots and flares on other stars in as much detail as we can for our Sun. So studying the Sun gives us a great way to try and figure out what's happening on other stars, and studying other stars helps to understand how commonplace or unusual are the phenomena we see on the Sun.