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Last Post 3/22/2011 3:04 PM by Irina Marinova

sunspot

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Anonymous

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3/22/2011 10:15 AM
Brian F how big are the spots on the sun right now?

Tags: sunspots, size, Earth, photosphere, SOHO

Irina Marinova

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Posts:5

3/22/2011 3:04 PM
Sunspots are regions on the surface of the sun that are cooler and darker than the surrounding area (the photosphere). Sunspots change in size as they move across the surface of the sun, however some sun spots have been observed to be as large as 80,000km. This is about six times the size of the Earth! NASA and the European Space Agency have a satellite in orbit around the sun (called SOHO) that takes pictures of the sun every day. You can see what the sun looks like right now (including sun spots) at this website: http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/sunspots/ Today (March 22), it looks like there are two groups of sunspots. It seems to me that these sunspots are about the size of Earth or a little bit larger!