01- The Sun, Our Star Flashcards
the bright visible “surface” (gas, not actual surface) of the sun. The source of earth’s sunlight, less than 500km deep.
Photosphere
bright regions of convection (which are mixing, rising hot, and cooling sinks). It is cool and sinks at darker edges. They are the size of Alberta
Granulation
Darker region of the solar surface and cooler than the rest of the sun. They appear in bipolar (N/S) magnetic pairs like a bar magnet.
SunSpot
The sunspot is composed of the umbra and the penumbra. What are they?
The umbra is the dark center which is cooler while the penumbra is the outer region of the sunspot.
when a planet is seen as a dot from earth, crossing the sun’s face is used to measure the diameter of Venus and distance to the sun by solar parallax.
Transit of Venus
an angle to an object from two observations spaced apart (triangulation)
Parallax
the full number of radiation/light wavelengths emitted by the sun
Spectrum
a missing wavelength in a spectrum
spectral line
distance to object at parallax of 1 arc second. (206.265 astronomical units (AU) or 3.26 light years.
Parsec (parralax-arc-second)
small apparent position shift of star against a background due to the earth’s motion. 1 AU in photographs taken 6 months apart.
Stellar Parallax
rotating conductor, magnetic field created stirred by convection which converts some energy to magnetically flow out. Similar process is taken in the molten iron of earth’s core
Dynamo Effect
a large amount of ionized gas blown out by reconnection.
Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)
northern and southern lights, solar wind electrical currents in Earth’s magnetic field.
Aurora
flares into CME and makes the aurora as the magnetosphere of Earth funnels the energy/particles
Prominence/Filament
11 years observed in sunspot activity
solar cycle/magnetic cycle
