A massive Sunspot group, AR2770 was observed recently by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. According to the report, a few minor space flares have been emitted by this particular Sunspot group already, which has not caused anything major other than “minor waves of ionisation to ripple through Earth’s upper atmosphere”.
Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2020
Key-Points
A Sunspot is an area on the Sun that appears dark on the surface and is relatively cooler than surrounding parts.
These spots, some as large as 50,000 km in diameter, are the visible markers of the Sun’s magnetic field, which forms a blanket that protects the solar system from harmful cosmic radiation.
On the photosphere– the outer surface of the Sun which radiates heat and light– Sunspots are the areas where the star’s magnetic field is the strongest; around 2,500 times more than the Earth’s magnetic field.
Most Sunspots appear in groups that have their own magnetic field, whose polarity reverses during every solar cycle, which takes around 11 years. In every such cycle, the number of Sunspots increases and decreases.
The current solar cycle, which began in 2008, is in its ‘solar minimum’ phase, when the number of Sunspots and solar flares is at a routine low.
