Authors
Anushka Patil
Abstract
The succession of day and night and the cycle of seasons are two acquainted natural cycles around which many human happenings are planned. But there is a third natural cycle also which is of great importance for humans. There was an event took place on 13 March 1989 where the electricity went out for many hours in Canada: a large detonation on the sun was exposed as the reason for this shutdown. In further researches, it was cleared the mystery that explosions occur above sunspots which is actually dark structures on the surface of the Sun that have been detected through telescopes since the period of Galileo. The first ever record that is found to be in written about sunspot sighting dates back to 28 B.C There’s fascinating science behind the sunspot cycle. Astronomer S.H. Schwabe is regarded as the first scientist who describes the 11-year sunspot cycle. The sum of sunspots has been found to undergo alternate increases and decreases over a period of 11 years. This cycle was exposed less than two centuries ago, it is becoming progressively significant for us as human civilization becomes more reliant on technology. For nearly a century after its discovery, the root of the sunspot cycle stayed completely masked in unidentified situation. In 1908 strong magnetic fields were discovered which made that the 11-year cycle is actually the magnetic cycle of the sun. It is only throughout the last few eras that major growths in plasma physics have at last given us the linking evidence to the backgrounds of the cycle and also about how the large explosion is affecting the earth. Keywords: Sunspot Cycle, Earth, Temperature, Magnetic Field, Changes.
Introduction
Sunspots
A dark spot on the surface of the sun having the planet size is called sunspot. This dark spot is cooler the left part of sun (surrounding area of sun). The temperature of this sunspot is about 4,000 K which is very lower than the bright photosphere’s temperature i.e., 5,800 K of the sun and the area of environs the sunspots.
This sunspot is darker than the sunny side of sun. If this sunspot size is cut off from the sun and placed in sky at night, it will shine as full moon. There are two side of sunspot; one is lighter periphery known as penumbra, and another one is darker middle region is known as umbra.
The production of sunspot is the bursting of magnetic field on the photosphere (visible part of the sun). Because of the powerful magnetic field, the active region on sun is generated. Through this magnetic field, solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are formed and entitled as solar storms.
The duration of the formation of sunspots is days to weeks or may exceed to months. The visible region of sunspot ion the brighter part of sun is not always same, it is up and down in cycle. According to the historical records of sunspot confirmed that the duration of this sunspot cycle is about eleven years.
Sunspot Cycle
The deviation is seen between the sunspot’s sums year to year. This increase and decrease in the count of a sunspot is a cycle. The life span of the sunspot is about only 11 years. The cycle was observed in 1843 by German astronomer Samuel Heinrich Schwabe. The Solar Maximum (solar max) is the peak of the sunspot count. While it is the sunspot minimum (solar min) in which few sunspots are seen. An example of a current sunspot cycle spans is from 1986 when only 13 sunspots were appeared to 1989 when the spot reached up to 157 sunspots and again the sunspot decrease in 1996. The duration of the sunspot cycle is around 11 years but this cycle fluctuates. In the duration from 1700 to present, the sunspot cycle has been varied as short length is nine years to long as fourteen years.
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| APA Style | Patil, A. (2019). Sunspot Cycle-Window to Our Galaxy’s Past and Future. Academic Journal of Modern Applied Sciences, 1(1), 19-23 |
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