Page 2 The Sun Part 2 Hello again, this is our second look at our closest star, the sun.
Scientific study of the sun can be said to begin with Isaac Newton, the chap famous for his encounter with an apple. He split sunlight using a wedge shaped piece of glass called a prism, and found the light was composed of many colours, the spectrum.
Nowadays, we use study of a stars spectrum to understand what a star is made of. To put it crudely, the colours tell us what elements and in what proportions a star is burning. Each line of the spectrum is like a fingerprint and identifies an element. Like everything in science, this sort of study has practical uses too, Bunsen, of Bunsen burner fame used it to make special efficient burners.
Some of the most interesting features of the Sun, are sunspots, these darker areas on the surface are a bit like the corks in a bottle of Cava, give it a shake and stuff comes pouring out. What comes out of the sun is super-hot plasma and intense magnetic fields, not something to get close to.
A photograph of a sunspot make it look dark, but it is still very hot, over 3,500ºC, that's about 2000 degrees less than the surface. These spots aren't constant, the number of them reaches a maximum every 11 years, if you can work out exactly why, go and collect your Nobel prize.
In the late 1600, Europe had a mini ice age, rivers froze every winter. It was observed that there were almost no sunspots at that time. Why? Another Nobel prize waiting. If we can learn enough to predict these things, it will help us cope when it happens again, and sometime in the remaining life of the sun, about 5 billion years it's sure to.
A last little note, Don't look at the sun, especially through a telescope or binoculars, you WILL go blind.
Charles Oates. Vega Baja Astronomy Group.
QF Focus Magazine
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