Hi Tiffany,

<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-->You’ve just asked a fascinating question. There are many solar physicists who spend their entire career to answer this question. The problem is still an active research area, and not completely understood.
<!--[endif]-->
Sunspots are regions on the Sun with very strong magnetic fields. These strong magnetic fields are generated below the surface of the Sun with some structures and are pushed upwards by certain forces. When these structures emerge or going upwards, we see the sunspots grow. Once a sunspot completes its emerging phase, its magnetic field begins to get weaker, and the sunspot shrinks and eventually disappears when its magnetic field becomes too weak. Now, why some sunspots come in clusters? Some of the strong magnetic field structures are simple and some are really complicated, so that some sunspots are simple dots and others come in clusters.

Well, actually if you would like to become a solar physicist and work on this very question of your own, you might even find better answers.

<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-->Yan

<!--[endif]-->