The sun is bright, so why are there sunspots? Listen to the sunspot's own story →

When talking about the sun, many people immediately think of sunspots. Are sunspots really black? How are they formed? What is their relationship with the sun? Let the sunspots themselves tell you!

sunspot

Hello! Hello everyone! First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Heizi. Needless to say, my hometown is on the sun. To be honest, I have always been looking forward to making friends with humans, and I hope that humans can understand my past and present lives as soon as possible.

However, in the long years before the invention of the telescope, it was really difficult for humans to study me. The Chinese have made outstanding contributions in observing and recording me, and have been highly praised by scholars from all over the world. This is well deserved and justified. They generally recognize a record about me in the ancient Chinese book "Han Shu", which is the earliest and most reliable record about me in the world. It was recorded on May 10, 28 BC. In fact, as far as I know, there are some earlier records in China before this. In Europe, the earliest record of my appearance was in 807 AD.

Everyone calls me Heizi. Although this name doesn't sound so nice, I can understand it. Because when people observe me, what appears in their eyes are indeed black shadows. That's because I am on the surface of the sun, which is thousands of degrees hotter than me. Against its bright image, of course I look dark. In fact, I'm not bragging. My temperature is as high as 4,000 to 5,000 degrees Celsius. Nothing on the earth can have such a high temperature. If I am given a chance to perform, such as letting me fill the entire sun, I can guarantee that although the light and sky will be slightly darker than now, it will not affect your study, work and life at all.

The shapes of me and my companions are really bizarre. Some of us look like pears, some like dates, and some like flying birds. In short, we look like everything. That's because we are all vortex-shaped air currents that appear on the surface of the sun. Our sizes vary greatly, with the smallest being only 1,000 kilometers and the largest being 200,000 or 300,000 kilometers. A dozen or so Earths can "comfortably" lie inside. As for the time we exist on the surface of the sun, there are also huge differences! The shortest is only a few hours, the average is a few days to dozens of days, and the longest can exist for a month to more than a year.

Sometimes we appear alone, sometimes in groups. In any case, our appearance on the surface of the sun is subject to many conditions on the sun and cannot be left to our own devices. Because of this, scientists can find out the cycle of our appearance from more to less and then from less to more, and can say with confidence that the average cycle of our appearance is 11 years. I remember that due to various complex factors, the longest cycle was 14 years, and the shortest was only about 8 and a half years.

A photo of a sunspot taken in the United States in 2010. The black umbra and sunflower-shaped penumbra of the sunspot in the photo are larger than the earth.

If we look at my magnetic field, it is reasonable to say that my cycle is 22 years, because after one cycle is over, my magnetic field will be reversed in the next cycle, and reversed again in the next cycle, or in other words, the magnetic field will return to its previous state.

Frankly speaking, my cycle has become complicated because the situation of the sun is too complicated. There are various opinions about my cycle, and some people even suspect that my 11-year average cycle is temporary. I will not interrupt you about these, and let you debate for a few decades or more. Perhaps the problem will become clearer and clearer, and your understanding of us will become clearer and clearer.

One thing that makes me feel particularly proud is that my cycle, the number of my and my partners' appearances, and our activities are recognized as the main signs of solar activity. In the close relationship with the earth and humans, our sunspots play a big role! Because of this, scientists have always paid special attention to our behavior in the process of studying the sun. We welcome scientists to continue to strengthen their research on us, because we are very happy to contribute everything we have to the earth and humans.

Well, dear friends, let's stop here today. We will continue our conversation when everyone has a deeper understanding of us.

Text/Hua Xueying Photo/Internet