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Astronomy Picture of the Day
A Sunspot in the New Solar Cycle
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#105529
by
[z]Barbara Harris
@
07.02.2008 00:00
- nach oben -
A Sunspot in the New Solar Cycle
Explanation:
A new cycle has begun on our Sun.
Over the past year, the Sun's
magnetic field
has reset and now a new
11 year period
is beginning.
Pictured above
in a
specific color
of light emitted by
hydrogen
is sunspot 10982, one of the first sunspots of the new solar cycle.
The two dark lines visible just above and to either side of the bright sunspot are cool
filaments
held aloft
by the Sun's magnetic field.
Hot and cold regions are shown as regions of relative light and dark,
respectively.
A
solar cycle
is caused by the changing magnetic field, and varies from
solar maximum
, when
sunspot
,
coronal mass ejection
, and
flare phenomena
are most frequent,
to solar minimum, when such activity is relatively infrequent.
Solar minimum
s occurred in 1996 and 2007, while the last
solar maximum
occurred in 2001.
Of course,
tomorrow's
annular
solar eclipse is
mostly
for penguins.
digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080206.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';
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