Solar Week - Ask a Question



Come here during Solar Week (next one: March 22-26, 2021) to interact. To post a question, click on your area of interest from the topics below, and then click on the "Ask New Question" button. Or EMAIL or tweet or plant in Answer Garden your question about the Sun or life as a scientist to us -- and watch for it to appear here.  You can also visit our FAQs (frequently asked questions). In between Solar Weeks in October and March, you can view all the archives here.

PrevPrev Go to previous topic
NextNext Go to next topic
Last Post 3/22/2021 8:24 AM by  Christina Cohen
Sunspots
 1 Replies
Sort:
You are not authorized to post a reply.
Author Messages
Anonymous
Posts:

--
3/21/2021 7:53 PM
    Did the Sun have sunspots from the beginning of its existence or is it a more recent development?
    Christina Cohen
    Basic Member
    Posts:148 Basic Member

    --
    3/22/2021 8:24 AM
    Hi,

    That’s a really interesting question! Unfortunately, I don’t think we know for sure. The Sun has had spots (at least at times; there are times when the Sun will have no spots, but this is temporary) ever since we first started looking at it. But, of course, the Sun has been around a lot longer than we have.

    There is some work being done looking at other stars to see if they have ‘sunspots’ (or starspots as they are generally called), and there have been some found on young stars. This suggests that our star also had spots at a young age. But whether they were there from the start is a good question.

    -Christina
    You are not authorized to post a reply.


    Twitter Feed

    Scientist Leaderboard

    Name # of replies
    Multiverse skin is based on Greytness by Adammer