http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h56/unaguave/hurrspot.gif
Here's a good picture of a sunspot. See the whirling?
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h56/unaguave/050617penumbra.jpg
Here another good picture of a sunspot. See how the surface of the Sun is drawn towards the sunspot? Interesting.
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h56/unaguave/sun2.jpg
Here is what the filaments inside the sunspot wall look like. It's all flowing gas, and many of them twist and have dark lines down the back. We can conclude that they are giant tornadoes, running parallel to the surface, and the dark line down the middle is caused by the vortex in the center.
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h56/unaguave/sun.jpg
They dump themselves into the core of the sunspot.
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h56/unaguave/041015solar-tornado.jpg
Sometimes they bridge the gap.
Tornadoes running parallel to the surface of the Sun dump themselves into sunspots, which cause perpendicular hurricanes.
2006-07-16 12:38:07 · 4 answers · asked by Tony, ya feel me? 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Do a search for "sunspot hurricane" and you'll find more information from a number of different sites.
2006-07-16 12:58:52 · update #1
Sunspots are a result of varying temperatures on the surface of the sun. Cooler areas look darker than the surrounding areas which are warmer. What looks like a hurricane in your picture is just motion caused by the magnetic field of the sun.
2006-07-16 12:47:02 · answer #1 · answered by prune 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
We call the visible face of the sun, which gives off light, the photosphere. It is a region of boiling gas. The temperature here is around 5500 deg Cel.
Dark patches called sunspots can be seen on the photosphere. They are around 1500 deg Cel cooler than the surrounding surface. Some sunspots may grow to be over 200000 kms (120000 miles) across and may last for months.
Around a sunspot there is a strong magnetic field. This often causes a flashes of brilliant light to occur. Source: Space by Robin Kerrod of Hamlyn Publishing, U.K.
VR
2006-07-17 03:32:21 · answer #2 · answered by sarayu 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you look at a sunspot from the side, they look very different than hurricanes.
As I'm sure you are aware, sunspots are caused my magnetic disturbances, where hurricanes are caused by atmospheric movement due to heat flow.
I think that it's fairly clear that sunspots are not solar hurricanes, but it begs the question, does the sun have hurricanes? What would they look like?
2006-07-16 19:41:38 · answer #3 · answered by Michael M 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No great revelations. Sunspots have long been called "magnetic storms."
2006-07-16 20:10:38 · answer #4 · answered by Chug-a-Lug 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋