What are sunspots, how do they form, where on the sun do they form, and how hot are they?
Sunspots are dark areas of irregular shape on the surface of the Sun. Sunspots are darker than the rest of the visible solar surface because they are cooler: Most of the visible surface of the Sun has a temperature of about 5400 C, but in a big sunspot the temperature can drop to about 4000 C. Sunspots come in sizes between about 2500 km and about 50,000 km. They are cuased by twisted knots in the Sun’s magnetic fields. The twisting of the magnetic field is caused because different parts of the Sun rotate at different speeds.
