The Sun & Magnetic Fields Flashcards
What are sunspots a sign of?
Activity in the Sun, demonstrating events occurring below.
What is the equation for the gas pressure of the sun?
P = P* + 1/2μ0 * B^2, where P* = gas pressure in spot + contribution from field
What are the lighter areas near sunspots called? What do they show?
Faculae. Areas of strong magnetic field.
What is a butterfly diagram?
Diagram of sunspot migration on the Sun: daily sunspot area averaged over individual solar rotations.
What was the Maunder minimum?
Period of time where there were pretty much no spots: caused extreme winters and lower solar luminosity.
What does the sunspot number correlate with?
X-Ray flux.
How can we use X-rays to look at the activity of other stars than the Sun?
Can compare to the Sun and estimate the sunspots and activity on other stars.
What is the Babcock model?
Toy model with no physics demonstrating how field lines get wound up over a cycle.
What happens in the Babcock model?
Field lines run in one direction and then after some time run in other direction.
What is the Zeeman-effect?
Interaction of atoms with external magnetic field due to magnetic moment.
What happens to orbitals due to the zeeman effect?
Orbitals split in magnetic field.
