How do sunspots form and are the interesting to reasearch?
Sunspots are places on the Sun’s photosphere (its visible surface) that are cooler than normal (only about 3000 or 4000 Kelvins instead of the normal 6000 Kelvins). Being cooler, they appear darker. These “not-so-hot-spots” are formed where strong magnetic fields emerge from inside the Sun; these magnetic fields prevent the normal rising of hot, convecting gases from inside the Sun, and so less heat from within the Sun reaches that spot. Sunspots are very interesting to research. First, they are examples of enormous and powerful magnetic fields, much larger and stronger than anything on Earth. Scientists can study them to see how huge magnetic fields affect plasmas (electrically charged gases). Second, the number and size of sunspots on the Sun indicates how magnetically active the Sun is at a given time. People have been obseving sunspots for many centuries–and in the last four hundred years detailed studies of the number, shapes, and life-time of sunspots have been made. We have lea
