Chapter 9 The Sun

1. Chapter 9The Sun

2. 9.4 The Active Sun Sunspots: appear dark because slightly cooler than surroundings:

3. 9.4 The Active Sun Sunspots come and go, typically in a few days. Sunspots are linked by pairs ofmagnetic field lines:

4. 9.4 The Active Sun The rotation of the Sun drags magnetic field lines around with it, causing kinks

5. 9.4 The Active Sun The Sun has an 11-yearsunspot cycle, during which sunspot numbers rise, fall, and then rise again:

6. 9.4 The Active Sun This is really a 22-year cycle, because the spots switchpolaritiesbetween the northern and southern hemispheres every 11 years. Maunder minimum: few, if any, sunspots:

7. 9.4 The Active Sun Areas around sunspots are active; largeeruptionsmay occur in photosphere. Solar prominenceis large sheet of ejected gas:

8. 9.4 The Active Sun Solar flareis a largeexplosionon Sun’s surface, emitting a similar amount of energy to a prominence, but in seconds or minutes rather than days or weeks:

9. 9.4 The Active Sun A coronal mass ejection emits charged particles that can affect the Earth:

10. 5.7 Magnetospheres The magnetosphereis the region around the Earth where charged particles from the solar wind are trapped:

11. 5.7 Magnetospheres These charged particles are trapped in areas called theVan Allen belts, where they spiral around the magnetic field lines:

12. 5.7 Magnetospheres Near the poles, the Van Allen belts intersect the atmosphere. The charged particles can escape; when they do, they create glowing light called anaurora:

13. 9.4 The Active Sun Solar windescapes Sun mostly throughcoronal holes, which can be seen in X-ray images

14. 9.4 The Active Sun Solar coronachanges along with sunspot cycle; is much larger and more irregular at sunspot peak:

15. 9.3 The Solar Atmosphere Solar coronacan be seen during eclipse if both photosphere and chromosphere are blocked:

16. 9.3 The Solar Atmosphere Corona is much hotter than layers below it – must have aheat source, probably electromagnetic interactions.

17. 9.2 The Solar Interior Energytransport Theradiation zoneis relatively transparent; the coolerconvection zoneis opaque:

18. 9.2 The Solar Interior The visible top layer of the convection zone isgranulated, with areas of upwelling material surrounded by areas of sinking material:

19. 9.3 The Solar Atmosphere Spectral analysiscan tell us what elements are present, but only in the chromosphere and photosphere:

20. 9.5 The Heart of the Sun Nuclear fusionrequires that like-charged nuclei get close enough to each other to fuse. This can happen only if thetemperatureis extremely high – over 10 million K.

21. 9.5 The Heart of the Sun The process that powers most stars is a three-step fusion process:

22. 9.5 The Heart of the Sun Neutrinosare emitted directly from the core of the Sun, andescape, interacting with virtually nothing. Being able to observe these neutrinos would give us adirect pictureof what is happening in the core. Unfortunately, they are no more likely to interact with Earth-based detectors than they are with the Sun; the only way to spot them is to have a hugedetector volumeand to be able to observesingle interaction events.

23. 9.5 The Heart of the Sun The Sudbury neutrino observatory:

24. Summary of Chapter 9 • Sun is held together by its own gravity and powered by nuclear fusion • Outer layers of Sun: photosphere, chromosphere, corona. The corona is very hot. • Mathematical models and helioseismology give us a picture of the interior of the Sun • Sunspots occur in regions of high magnetic fields; darker spots are cooler

25. Summary of Chapter 9 • Nuclear fusion converts hydrogen to helium, releasing energy • Solar neutrinos come directly from the solar core, although observations have told us more about neutrinos than about the Sun