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In solar physics, a spicule, also known as a fibril or mottle, [a] is a dynamic jet of plasma in the Sun's chromosphere about 300 km in diameter. [1] They move upwards with speeds between 15 and 110 km/s from the photosphere and last a few minutes each [ 1 ] before falling back to the solar atmosphere. [ 2 ]
From 2007 to 2009, sunspot levels were far below average. In 2008, the Sun was spot-free 73 percent of the time, extreme even for a solar minimum. Only 1913 was more pronounced, with no sunspots for 85 percent of that year. The Sun continued to languish through mid-December 2009, when the largest group of sunspots to emerge for several years ...
The Sun has been an object of veneration in many cultures. It has been a central subject for astronomical research since antiquity. The Sun orbits the Galactic Center at a distance of 24,000 to 28,000 light-years. From Earth, it is 1 astronomical unit (1.496 × 10 8 km) or about 8 light-minutes away.
Under this scenario, they claimed the Sun might have contributed 50% of the observed global warming since 1900. [49] Stott et al. estimated that the residual effects of the prolonged high solar activity during the last 30 years account for between 16% and 36% of warming from 1950 to 1999. [50]
Sunlight takes about 8.3 minutes to reach Earth from the surface of the Sun. [3] A photon starting at the center of the Sun and changing direction every time it encounters a charged particle would take between 10,000 and 170,000 years to get to the surface. [4]
Sunspots themselves, in terms of the magnitude of their radiant-energy deficit, have a weak effect on solar flux. [39] The total effect of sunspots and other magnetic processes in the solar photosphere is an increase of roughly 0.1% in brightness of the Sun in comparison with its brightness at the solar-minimum level.
On a prograde planet like the Earth, the sidereal day is shorter than the solar day. At time 1, the Sun and a certain distant star are both overhead. At time 2, the planet has rotated 360° and the distant star is overhead again (1→2 = one sidereal day). But it is not until a little later, at time 3, that the Sun is overhead again (1→3 = one solar day). More simply, 1→2 is a complete ...
[121] [122] Within 7.5 billion years, the Sun will have expanded to a radius of 1.2 AU (180 × 10 ^ 6 km; 110 × 10 ^ 6 mi)—256 times its current size. At the tip of the red-giant branch , as a result of the vastly increased surface area, the Sun's surface will be much cooler (about 2,600 K (2,330 °C; 4,220 °F)) than now, and its luminosity ...