What are sunspots? What science knows about sunspots. Real-time sunspots from the SDO satellite

27.09.2019

There are several entertaining and rather instructive stories associated with sunspots, the first of which have come down to us from ancient times.

Ancient Greek astronomers considered the Sun to be a flawless, ideal ball of fire, without any flaws. This point of view prevailed until the 17th century, at least in Europe. And far in the east, the Chinese, knowing nothing about the ideas of the Hellenes, even in the 1st century BC, described in their chronicles “birds” flying in front of the Sun. Europeans preferred not to think about sunspots at all, because they believed that if religion and philosophy declare the Sun to be perfect, then these “spots” could be either pairs passing between the Earth and the Sun, or planets.

During the reign of Charlemagne (8th century), the population of France saw a large black spot on the Sun for eight days. Scientists of that time declared that this was the planet Mercury. Their guess was not so stupid, since Mercury actually sometimes passes across the disk of the Sun, however, it crosses it in just a few hours.

With the invention of the telescope sunspots placed on the surface of the Sun, that is, where they really are. The first report on the results of their observations was published in 1611 by the German astronomer Johann Fabritius. Around the same time, the Sun was observed through a telescope by mathematics professor (and part-time Jesuit) Christoph Scheiner, who, due to his belonging to the all-powerful Order, was unable to overcome the wall of Aristotle’s dictate about the purity of the Sun. Having received assurances from his church superiors that either his telescope or his vision were mistaken, the scientist, so as not to bring charges of terrible heresy upon himself, chose to retreat and obediently “forgot” about his research.

Galileo Galilei turned out to be less accommodating.

In 1612, commenting on the observations of Fabricius in his letters, he described in detail the irregular shape of sunspots, their occurrence, decay, movement across the solar disk and, most importantly, he emphasized that the spots are phenomena occurring on the surface of the Sun, but not not the bodies revolving around it.

After Galileo’s authoritative statement, scientists began an intensive study of the incomprehensible “smallpox” that spoils the face of our luminary. In 1613, Johannes Kepler suggested that “the variability of the spots indicates their cloudy nature, but ... terrestrial analogies can be of little help here.” In the 18th century, sunspots were considered dark peaks visible through the photosphere of the Sun during the “low tides” of luminous matter. Then the idea arose that sunspots were holes in the photosphere. This guess is close to modern ideas, but it is now known that sunspots are not holes in the photosphere, but colder, although quite bright, areas; they appear dark only in comparison with the surrounding extremely bright surface.

As for the periodicity of the appearance of sunspots, people made countless manifestations of earthly life directly dependent on them, primarily the weather, as well as hunger, pestilence, disease, war, that is, in fact, in this phenomenon they found a convenient “ scapegoat”, responsible for all sorts of misfortunes. Thus, the drought in Italy in 1632 was associated with the absence of sunspots. In those years when the face of the Sun was dotted with them, harvests were famous for their abundance, wheat prices fell, and trees grew faster.

In 1870, Yale University professor Elias Loomis established a connection between Magnetic storms and the number of observed auroras with the periodicity of sunspots, which no one could explain at that time. Long years scientists remained completely unaware of how the Sun, located 150 million km from the Earth, could “shake” its magnetic field and ignite auroras... American cosmologist George Gamow in his book “The Star Called the Sun” was a little ironic notes that “the number of lynx skins purchased by the Hudson's Bay Company increases when there are many sunspots on the Sun. This may be because during such periods the auroras are brighter and provide more opportunities for favorable hunting during the long polar nights.” Even more striking and strange was the coincidence of the maximum sunspots with the French and Russian revolutions, both world wars and the Korean conflict.

Of course, there are many subtle connections between solar and terrestrial phenomena. If the Sun is able to stimulate the growth of trees, then we cannot exclude the possibility that, as Shakespeare said, “there are tides in the activities of men” - tides with a periodicity of 11 years...

Professor A. Chizhevsky identified and convincingly substantiated the existence of 11 and 22-year solar cycles, being 50 years ahead of his time and ending up in the Gulag for this. He identified the connection between the occurrence of various social and biological catastrophes on Earth with the “sliding” 11-year cycle of solar activity, which significantly intensifies every 22 years. However, today there is no coherent theory explaining such interdependence. True, there are hypotheses. In particular, the hypothesis of Robert Bracewell from the University of California, who has been studying sunspot cycles for many years. More or less reliable data on sunspots have been available since about 1800. Based on these data, we can conclude that solar activity, measured by the “number of sunspots,” is different in different cycles, that is, the maximum of one 11-year cycle differs from the maximum of the next or previous one. Bracewell and a number of other scientists believe that there are other, longer cycles in the life of the Sun.

So what are sunspots, which, not without reason, are considered the most noticeable manifestation of activity? It turns out that these are the gaps between the granules that make up the photosphere of the Sun, only they have grown enormously. In contrast to the very bright photosphere, the spots appear dark, although they also glow, that is, they emit energy. The temperature of the middle part of the spot (the darkest and coldest) is about 4500°.

Sunspots appear as small, dark pores about two thousand kilometers across. Over the course of a few days, the spot increases in size and after two weeks reaches its maximum development. A typical sunspot is 50 thousand km across, which is 4 times the diameter of the Earth! The big spot can reach much larger sizes - up to 130 thousand kilometers. Large spots “live” for about three months, ordinary ones – for several days. Each spot has a dark central region, called a shadow, which is surrounded by a grayish cloud - penumbra - as if of a fibrous structure with traces of vortex around the center of the spot.

The most important feature of the spots is the presence of strong magnetic fields in them, reaching the greatest intensity in the shadow area. In general, the spot is a tube of magnetic field lines extending into the photosphere, completely filling one of several cells of the chromospheric grid. The upper part of the tube expands, and the lines of force in it diverge, like ears of corn in a sheaf.

For the most part, spots appear in groups, change, break up into separate parts, and disappear. Spots mainly appear near the equator of the Sun. The movement of sunspots on the Sun occurs at different speeds: the further from the equator, the slower the speed of the spot. This suggests that the Sun rotates not as a solid, but as a gaseous body. (Regions near the solar equator complete a revolution around their axis in 27 Earth days; near the polar zone - in 34.)

Largest sunspot

In 1947, a sunspot was observed with an area of 18 billion km 2.

Like, for example, in the middle of the last millennium. Every inhabitant of our planet is aware that on the main source of heat and light there are small darkenings that are difficult to see without special devices. But not everyone knows the fact that it is they that lead to which can greatly affect the Earth’s magnetic field.

Definition

Speaking in simple language Sunspots are dark areas that form on the surface of the Sun. It is a mistake to believe that they do not emit bright light, but compared to the rest of the photosphere they are indeed much darker. Their main characteristic is low temperature. Thus, sunspots on the Sun are about 1,500 Kelvin cooler than other areas around them. In fact, they represent the very areas through which magnetic fields reach the surface. Thanks to this phenomenon, we can talk about such a process as magnetic activity. Accordingly, if there are few spots, then this is called a quiet period, and when there are many of them, then such a period will be called active. During the latter, the Sun's glow is slightly brighter due to the torches and flocculi located around the dark areas.

Studying

Observation of sunspots has been going on for a long time, its roots go back to the era BC. Thus, Theophrastus Aquinas back in the 4th century BC. e. mentioned their existence in his works. The first sketch of darkening on the surface of the main star was discovered in 1128, it belongs to John Worchester. In addition, in ancient Russian works of the 14th century, black solar inclusions are mentioned. Science began to study them rapidly in the 1600s. Most scientists of that period adhered to the version that sunspots were planets moving around the axis of the Sun. But after Galileo invented the telescope, this myth was dispelled. He was the first to discover that sunspots are integral to the solar structure itself. This event gave rise to a powerful wave of research and observations that have not stopped since then. Modern study amazes the imagination with its scale. Over the course of 400 years, progress in this area has become noticeable, and now the Royal Belgian Observatory is counting the number of sunspots, but the revelation of all facets of this cosmic phenomenon is still ongoing.

Appearance

Even at school, children are taught about the existence of a magnetic field, but usually only the poloidal component is mentioned. But the theory of sunspots also involves studying the toroidal element; naturally, we are already talking about the magnetic field of the Sun. It cannot be calculated near the Earth, since it does not appear on the surface. The situation is different with the celestial body. Under certain conditions, the magnetic tube floats out through the photosphere. As you might have guessed, this emission causes sunspots to form on the surface. Most often this happens en masse, which is why group accumulations of spots are most common.

Properties

On average it reaches 6000 K, while for spots it is about 4000 K. However, this does not prevent them from still producing a powerful amount of light. Sunspots and active regions, that is, groups of sunspots, have different terms existence. The first ones live from a couple of days to several weeks. But the latter are much more tenacious and can remain in the photosphere for months. As for the structure of each individual spot, it seems to be complex. Its central part is called the shadow, which looks monochromatic in appearance. In turn, it is surrounded by penumbra, characterized by its variability. As a result of the contact of cold plasma and magnetic plasma, vibrations of the substance are noticeable on it. The sizes of sunspots, as well as their number in groups, can be very diverse.

Cycles of solar activity

Everyone knows that the level is constantly changing. This situation led to the emergence of the concept of the 11-year cycle. Sunspots, their appearance and number are very closely related to this phenomenon. However, this issue remains controversial, since one cycle can vary from 9 to 14 years, and the level of activity constantly changes from century to century. Thus, there may be periods of some kind of calm, when there are practically no spots for more than one year. But the opposite can also happen when their number is considered abnormal. Previously, the countdown of the beginning of the cycle began from the moment of minimum solar activity. But with the advent of improved technologies, the calculation begins from the moment when the polarity of the spots changes. Data on past solar activities are available for study, but they are unlikely to be the most reliable assistant in predicting the future, because the nature of the Sun is very unpredictable.

Impact on the planet

It's no secret that the Sun closely interacts with our daily lives. The earth is constantly under attack from various external irritants. The planet is protected from their destructive effects by the magnetosphere and atmosphere. But, unfortunately, they are not able to resist him completely. Thus, satellites can be disabled, radio communications are disrupted, and astronauts are exposed to increased danger. In addition, radiation affects climate change and even a person’s appearance. There is such a thing as sun spots on the body that appear under the influence of ultraviolet radiation.

This issue has not yet been properly studied, as well as the influence of sunspots on daily life of people. Another phenomenon that depends on magnetic disturbances can be called Magnetic storms have become one of the most famous consequences of solar activity. They represent another external field around the Earth, which is parallel to the constant one. Modern scientists even associate increased mortality, as well as exacerbation of diseases of cardio-vascular system with the advent of this very magnetic field. And among the people it even gradually began to turn into superstition.

In ancient times, the Sun was deified. And not only the Sun, but everything celestial in general. Probably, since those ancient times, the well-known opposition between the ideally perfect sky and the sinful, imperfect Earth has come down to us. “Different as the sky from the Earth,” we say about things that are unlike each other in everything.

In the real world it is difficult to find a more suitable object for religious worship than the Sun. In the cult of the Sun, people instinctively expressed the correct idea of the dependence of everything on earth on the Sun. And this cult even penetrated into ancient Greek philosophy - the doctrine of the “perfection” of heaven was sanctified by the authority of Aristotle and his students. However, in those days sun worshipers were found in all corners globe.

You can probably guess where I'm going with this conversation. When one of the ancient observers noticed spots on the Sun, he not only made a scientific discovery,

but also insulted the deity. The discovery was valued only by descendants; reprisals for insults occurred immediately. For these reasons, the discovery of sunspots resolved the fundamental dispute - whether the heavens are perfect or nothing earthly is alien to them.

It is difficult to say who was the first to notice spots on the Sun. They were described by ancient Chinese chroniclers, Arab and Armenian chronicles, Russian chronicles, medieval historians - they all note that occasionally some dark formations appear on the Sun, most similar to nails, as if driven into the Sun. The word “spot” appeared later, in the 17th century, when sunspots were first seen through a telescope.

In the history of science, it is not uncommon for several scientists to make a discovery simultaneously and independently of each other. This was the case in early XVII century, when the honor of discovering sunspots was disputed by three scientists - the great Italian Galileo Galilei, the Dutchman Johann Fabritius and the German Jesuit professor Christopher Scheiner.

Seeing sunspots through a telescope is not difficult. All you have to do is protect your eyes with a dark filter and point the telescope at the Sun, and you can almost always spot spots on its surface. Ancient observations of sunspots with the naked eye were either forgotten or still unknown.

The first book on sunspots appeared in 1611. In it, Johann Fabricius says that back in December 1610, one morning, while observing the Sun through a telescope, he noticed a black spot on it, which he initially thought was a distant small cloud. However, after some time, when the Sun was already high in the sky, a strange dark “cloud” remained in the same place on the solar disk. When the next morning Fabricius saw the same spot on the Sun and in the same place, all doubts disappeared - the spot was not a cloud, but belonged to the Sun!

A few days later, new spots appeared on the Sun, and the previous spot changed shape and noticeably moved towards the western edge of the Sun. A few more days later it disappeared beyond this edge, but two weeks later it appeared again on the opposite, eastern edge. The conclusion was that the huge solar ball was slowly rotating around its axis, completing a full revolution in about a month.

Fabricius's book was already being prepared for publication when, in March 1611, Scheiner first noticed sunspots through his telescope and showed them to his students. However, unlike Fabricius, Scheiner was in no hurry to publish. He understood perfectly well that spots on the Sun would first of all tarnish his authority as a Jesuit professor, a propagandist of the Aristotelian doctrine of the “inviolable purity” of the heavens. Only in December 1611 did Scheiner dare to write about the discovery of sunspots, although even here he acted quite Jesuitically. Not wanting any trouble, Sheiner stated that the formations he discovered were not spots on the Sun, but unknown planets close to the Sun, projecting on the solar disk in the form of black spots.

Galileo apparently discovered sunspots as early as mid-1610, but never announced his discovery. However, in April 1611 in Rome, Galileo showed sunspots through his telescope to those interested in his astronomical discoveries. Galileo's caution is understandable - everything that he saw in the sky, armed with his eyes with a telescope, ran counter not only to the philosophy of Aristotle, but also to the teachings of the church. In such a situation, sunny

the spots could have been the last straw that overwhelmed the patience of the enemies of the great scientist.

And yet, dangerous as it was, Galileo got involved in a dispute about the nature of sunspots. He took the side of Fabricius and convincingly proved with new observations that the spots were not planets, but some kind of formations on the solar surface.

Still, Shaner should also be remembered with a kind word. He agreed with Galileo's arguments and diligently observed sunspots until 1627. Scheiner clarified the period of rotation of the Sun and described his observations in a voluminous tome containing about 800 pages!

And there are spots on the Sun - in the end, both distrustful scientists and faithful churchmen had to agree with this truth. For almost two centuries, astronomers continued to observe spots on the Sun without discovering anything fundamentally new. Only in the last century it suddenly became clear that the number of spots on the Sun fluctuates according to a certain law.

Heinrich Schwabe, a modest German pharmacist who lived in Germany in the last century, was an astronomy enthusiast. Let us note that “amateurism” is not possible in every activity, much less useful. You probably wouldn't risk seeking help from an amateur surgeon. But amateurs played, and to some extent still play, a major role in astronomy. There have always been few specialist astronomers. They did not have time to follow everything that was happening in the sky. This is where numerous astronomy lovers came to the rescue. They discovered new planets and comets, conducted regular observations of variable stars, and recorded the appearance of meteors. In short, in almost all areas of astronomy, a conscientious observer, armed with even a modest optical instrument, can benefit science. Some of the astronomy lovers, like Heinrich Schwabe, made great discoveries.

In 1826, Schwabe purchased a small telescope and began searching for unknown planets closer to the Sun than Mercury. This topic was fashionable in those years, and everyone wanted to become a pioneer. Obviously, if there are unknown planets, they must be projected onto the solar disk from time to time. At first glance they will look like sunspots, but the structural details will reveal the true nature of the suspicious objects. Here

why Schwabe, with purely German punctuality, for many years recorded in his journals all the spots that appeared on the Sun.

And then, while looking for one thing, Schwabe unexpectedly discovered something completely different. It turned out that approximately every ten years the number of sunspots becomes greatest. Five years after this, it drops to a minimum: on some days the Sun looks just like Aristotle - dazzlingly clear. Schwabe published the first message about his discovery in 1843. However, it became widely known only eight years later, when the famous naturalist Alexander Humboldt, in his book “Cosmos,” notified the whole world about Schwabe’s observations.

The discovery of the mysterious solar rhythm interested the astronomer of the Zurich Observatory Rudolf Wolf. He collected all telescopic observations of sunspots, as well as their descriptions in ancient chronicles. Over a longer period of time, the rhythm of the solar pulse is more clearly expressed. In 1852, Wolf found that the maximum number of sunspots fills the solar disk every 11.1 years (and not once every 10 years, as Schwabe calculated). Three years later, having become director of the Zurich Observatory, Wolf for the first time organized continuous systematic observations of sunspots - a visual expression of the so-called solar activity.

Astronomers at other observatories soon followed Wolf's example. Gradually, a “solar service” was formed - regular, never-ending observations of the Sun at many observatories around the globe. In addition, Wolf discovered connections between solar activity and auroras, magnetic storms and other phenomena on Earth. He was one of the discoverers of the Sun, a specialist astronomer who devoted his entire life to the study of the Sun and solar-terrestrial connections. Do not think that after Wolf, amateur astronomers and solar researchers no longer made discoveries. I'll give just one example.

Alexey Petrovich Moiseev worked at the Moscow Planetarium for many years as head of the slide fund. I first saw him in 1934 at a meeting of the Sun Department of the Moscow Astronomical and Geodetic Society. Tall, thin, modestly dressed, Moiseev did not like to talk about himself or his discoveries.

For a long time I did not know that this already middle-aged amateur astronomer, armed with an astronomical telescope with a lens diameter of only 34 mm, made a great contribution to the study of the Sun and its activity.

Moiseev discovered that the rainbow rings around the Sun and Moon, the so-called haloses, are associated with sunspots. According to his research, the same spots are associated with the frequency of appearance of cirrus clouds and the frequency and strength of thunderstorms.

He was a patient nature explorer who observed the Sun literally every day. And so from year to year, from decade to decade.

It is easy to understand that at the same moment you will see many more sunspots on the Sun through a large telescope than through a small one. In order to compare such heterogeneous observations with each other, they are reduced (reduced) through calculations to some telescope taken as a standard. In other words, they theoretically calculate what could be seen if this telescope were replaced with a standard one.

Abroad, the “standard” telescope has long been considered the one through which Wolf once observed. In the Soviet Union, for a long time, all observations of sunspots were reduced to the tiny telescope of Alexei Petrovich Moiseev.

Isn't this a sign of respect for a modest worker of science who did not have an official diploma as an astronomer, but throughout his life showed himself to be a real scientist?

How are sunspots arranged?

One of the largest active regions of this year has appeared on the solar disk, which means that there are spots on the Sun again - despite the fact that our star is entering the period. On the nature and history of the discovery of sunspots, as well as their influence on earth's atmosphere says Sergei Bogachev, an employee of the Laboratory of X-ray Solar Astronomy of the Lebedev Physical Institute, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

In the first decade of the 17th century, the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei and the German astronomer and mechanic Christoph Scheiner approximately simultaneously and independently of each other improved the telescope (or telescope) invented several years earlier and created on its basis a helioscope - a device that allows you to observe the Sun by projecting his image on the wall. In these images they discovered details that could be mistaken for wall defects if they did not move with the image - small spots dotting the surface of the ideal (and partly divine) central celestial body - the Sun. This is how sunspots entered the history of science, and the saying that there is nothing ideal in the world came into our lives: “And there are spots on the Sun.”

Sunspots are the main feature that can be seen on the surface of our star without the use of complex astronomical equipment. The visible sizes of the spots are on the order of one arc minute (the size of a 10-kopeck coin from a distance of 30 meters), which is at the limit of resolution of the human eye. However, a very simple optical device, magnifying only a few times, is enough for these objects to be discovered, which, in fact, happened in Europe at the beginning of the 17th century. Individual observations of spots, however, regularly occurred before this, and often they were made simply by eye, but remained unnoticed or misunderstood.

For some time they tried to explain the nature of the spots without affecting the ideality of the Sun, for example, as clouds in the solar atmosphere, but it quickly became clear that they relate only mediocrely to the solar surface. Their nature, however, remained a mystery until the first half of the 20th century, when magnetic fields were first discovered on the Sun and it turned out that the places where they were concentrated coincided with the places where sunspots formed.

Why do the spots look dark? First of all, it should be noted that their darkness is not absolute. It is, rather, similar to the dark silhouette of a person standing against the backdrop of a lit window, that is, it is only apparent against the backdrop of very bright ambient light. If you measure the "brightness" of the spot, you will find that it also emits light, but only at a level of 20-40 percent of the normal light of the Sun. This fact is enough to determine the temperature of the spot without any additional measurements, since the flux of thermal radiation from the Sun is uniquely related to its temperature through the Stefan-Boltzmann law (the flux of radiation is proportional to the temperature of the radiating body to the fourth power). If we put the brightness of the normal surface of the Sun with a temperature of about 6000 degrees Celsius as a unit, then the temperature of sunspots should be about 4000-4500 degrees. Strictly speaking, this is how it is - sunspots (and this was later confirmed by other methods, for example, spectroscopic studies of radiation) are simply areas of the solar surface of lower temperature.

The connection between spots and magnetic fields is explained by the influence of the magnetic field on the temperature of the gas. This influence is due to the presence of a convective (boiling) zone in the Sun, which extends from the surface to a depth of about a third of the solar radius. The boiling of solar plasma continuously raises hot plasma from its depths to the surface and thereby increases the surface temperature. In areas where the surface of the Sun is pierced by tubes of a strong magnetic field, the efficiency of convection is suppressed until it stops completely. As a result, without replenishment of hot convective plasma, the surface of the Sun cools down to temperatures of about 4000 degrees. A stain forms.

Nowadays, sunspots are studied mainly as the centers of active solar regions in which solar flares are concentrated. The fact is that the magnetic field, the “source” of which are sunspots, brings into the solar atmosphere additional reserves of energy that are “extra” for the Sun, and it, like any physical system that seeks to minimize its energy, tries to get rid of them. This additional energy is called free energy. There are two main mechanisms for releasing excess energy.

The first is when the Sun simply throws out into interplanetary space the part of the atmosphere that burdens it, along with excess magnetic fields, plasma and currents. These phenomena are called coronal mass ejections. The corresponding emissions, spreading from the Sun, sometimes reach colossal sizes of several million kilometers and are, in particular, the main cause of magnetic storms - the impact of such a plasma clot on the Earth’s magnetic field throws it out of balance, causes it to oscillate, and also strengthens electric currents, flowing in the Earth’s magnetosphere, which is the essence of a magnetic storm.

The second way is solar flares. In this case free energy is burned directly in the solar atmosphere, but the consequences of this can also reach the Earth - in the form of streams of hard radiation and charged particles. This impact, which is radiation in nature, is one of the main reasons for the failure of spacecraft, as well as auroras.

However, having discovered a sunspot on the Sun, you should not immediately prepare for solar flares and magnetic storms. A fairly common situation is when the appearance of spots on the solar disk, even record-breaking large ones, does not lead to even a minimal increase in the level of solar activity. Why is this happening? This is due to the nature of the release of magnetic energy on the Sun. Such energy cannot be released from a single magnetic flux, just as a magnet lying on a table, no matter how much it is shaken, will not create any solar flare. There must be at least two such threads, and they must be able to interact with each other.

Since one magnetic tube piercing the surface of the Sun in two places creates two spots, then all groups of spots in which there are only two or one spots are not capable of creating flares. These groups are formed by one thread, which has nothing to interact with. Such a pair of spots can be gigantic and exist on the solar disk for months, frightening the Earth with their size, but will not create a single, even minimal, flare. Such groups have a classification and are called type Alpha, if there is one spot, or Beta, if there are two.

Complex sunspot of the Beta-Gamma-Delta type. Top - visible spot, bottom - magnetic fields shown using the HMI instrument on board the SDO space observatory

If you find a message about the appearance of a new sunspot on the Sun, take the time and look at the type of group. If it is Alpha or Beta, then you don’t have to worry - the Sun will not produce any flares or magnetic storms in the coming days. A more difficult class is Gamma. These are groups of sunspots in which there are several spots of northern and southern polarity. In such an area there are at least two interacting magnetic flux. Accordingly, such an area will lose magnetic energy and fuel solar activity. And finally, the last class is Beta Gamma. These are the most complex areas, with an extremely entangled magnetic field. If such a group appears in the catalog, there is no doubt that the Sun will unravel this system for at least several days, burning energy in the form of flares, including large ones, and ejecting plasma, until it simplifies this system to a simple Alpha or Beta configuration.

However, despite the “terrifying” connection of spots with flares and magnetic storms, we should not forget that this is one of the most remarkable astronomical phenomena that can be observed from the surface of the Earth using amateur instruments. Finally, sunspots are a very beautiful object - just look at their images taken from high resolution. Those who, even after this, are not able to forget about the negative aspects of this phenomenon, can be consoled by the fact that the number of spots on the Sun is still relatively small (no more than 1 percent of the disk surface, and often much less).

A number of types of stars, at least red dwarfs, “suffer” to a much greater extent - up to tens of percent of their area can be covered with spots. You can imagine what the hypothetical inhabitants of the corresponding planetary systems are like, and once again rejoice at what relatively calm star we are lucky enough to live next to.