Sunspot Lab Report

Planet Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the fifth largest of the planets of the Solar System. Earth’s surface is 71 percent water and is the only astronomical planet currently known where life exists. Earth is our home planet. Scientist and astronomers have studied our planet for Centuries and they have discovered much about our planet. Scientist have gained so much more knowledge of our Solar System in the last half-century after the NASA launched the first spacecraft and travel beyond Earth’s atmosphere has opened up to those who wish to explore. In the following paragraphs, we will discuss Earth and the

“The sun is the heart of our solar system” (NASA Solar System Exploration) which is located at the center of the solar system. The sun has a radius of 432,168.6 miles. You would need 1.3 million Earths to fill up the sun. But the sun is not the largest star there are several that are much larger. The sun is the closest star to Earth which is around 93 million miles. The sun is like a big ball of gas. “In terms of the number of atoms, it is made of 91.0% hydrogen and 8.9% helium.” (NASA Solar System Exploration). But if you measure by mass the sun is made up of “70.6% hydrogen and 27.4% helium.” (NASA Solar System Exploration). Gravitational attraction which is made by pressure and temperature in the core holds together the sun. There is three main layers in the sun which are the core, the radiative zone, and the convective zone. Inside the core temperatures can reach 27 million degrees Fahrenheit

The sun is a star that is made up of hydrogen gas. The sun is unlike other stars that we see in the sky because the sun delivers energy and radiation that allows to living things to exist. Also, the sun is much closer than the other stars in the sky.

1. The earth’s sun is a star, it generates heat and light through nuclear fusion.

The life cycle of the Sun starts like all stars with a cloud of dust and gas made up of mostly hydrogen. If the cloud cools, it will shrink because of the gravitational pull between the particles

The Earth 's atmosphere has changed all through history. Just in the most recent 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of frigid progress and withdraw, with the sudden end of the last ice age around 7,000 years back denoting the start of the present day atmosphere period and of human development. The greater part of these atmosphere changes are credited to little varieties in Earth 's circle that change the measure of sun based vitality our planet gets. Exploratory proof for warming of the atmosphere framework is unequivocal. The present warming pattern is of specific criticalness in light of the fact that the vast majority of it is likely human-impelled and continuing at a rate that is exceptional in the previous 1,300 years. Earth-circling satellites and other mechanical advances have empowered researchers to see the comprehensive view, gathering a wide range of sorts of data about our planet and its atmosphere on a worldwide scale. This group of information, gathered over numerous years, uncovers the signs of an evolving atmosphere. The warmth catching nature of carbon dioxide and different gasses was shown in the mid-nineteenth century. Their capacity to influence the exchange of infrared vitality through the environment is the logical premise of numerous instruments flown by NASA. There is no doubt that expanded levels of nursery gasses must bring about the Earth to warm accordingly. Ice centers drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain icy masses

According to the DBSA in the US alone depression affects 6.7% of adults. This is approximately 14.8 million people who are diagnosed yearly. Depression puts you at a risk four times higher than that of a non depressed person for a heart attack. The majority of depressed peoples are women. In the medical world there are many techniques to combat depression. There are many forms of prescription antidepressants including; selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), atypical antidepressants, tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), and monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs). Thanks to Ed Likovich, Kasey Russell, Richard Schwartz, Jacqueline Olds and Tom Hayes there is another form of prescribed antidepressant that we now know as Sunsprite.

During this unit in my astronomy class, one thing that I found fascinating was sunspots. A sunspot is basically a patch that occasionally occurs on the surface of the sun, and appears darker by contrasting with it’s surroundings. Human’s have known about sunspots for a quite a while now, even all the way back to the fifth century B.C., when the Chinese were able to observe dark areas on the sun. However, it wasn’t until the year 1610 when there was a real break through. Four men, all of which no one is particularly certain who observed sunspots first, were able to see these blemishes on the sun through telescopes. These men were Galileo Galilei, Johannes Fabricius, Christopher Scheiner, and Thomas Harriott. All through their own independent studies, they recorded the changing shapes and locations of sunspots. Further advancement for study on sunspots began in 1749, when scientists began daily observations in several observatories. Continuous observation began in the year 1849.

During several years between approximately 1645 until 1715 – many areas within the northern climates experienced increased cold weather with streams and lakes frozen over for extended periods of time. This period of years has been labeled “The Maunder Minimum” (Hathaway) based upon the research of the astronomer Edward Walter Maunder ("Edward Walter Maunder"). Within his research, he noted the sun undergoes a cycle of sunspot activity and inactivity – this activity is also known as the magnetic activity. With the data that many researchers have gathers based upon Maunder – the earth is beginning to enter into another cycle of sunspot inactivity. Although we are beginning to enter the next cycle of sunspots, one major environmental concern we have now that was not a factor in the past is the CO2 emissions – known as greenhouse gases.

Sunspots are generated by strong and dense magnetic fields, and these magnetic fields are caused by flowing plasma that gets tangled and moves through the photosphere. [1] However, it is not actually sunspot activity that effects the Earth’s power grid and satellite communications, [2] but rather the solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that can be caused by sunspots that cause problems. [3]

Throughout history climates have drastically changed. There have been shifts from warm climates to the Ice Ages (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2009, p.204). Evidence suggests there have been at least a dozen abrupt climate changes throughout the history of the earth. There are a few suspected reasons for these past climate changes. One reason may be that asteroids hitting the earth and volcanic eruptions caused some of them. A further assumption is that 22-year solar magnetic cycles and 11-year sunspot cycles played a part in the changes. A further possibility is that a regular shifting in the angle of the moon orbiting earth causing changing tides and atmospheric circulation affects the global climate (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2009,

As the Sun brightens it is expected that the Earth will become warmer. This is true as over time the Sun has become denser due to a buildup in helium and, as a result, has become “30% brighter” (Page 104). For the Sun to be responsible for the recent warming though, there would have to be a “long-term increase in the solar constant (amount of solar radiation received by the Earth) over the past few decades” (Page 105) which data has not shown. It can then be concluded that the Sun is not responsible for the major changes in

The solar system is so big and has been around for such a long time that my sister explained that it began with The Big Bang. The Big Bang theory is very confusing, but I know that it happened about 13.8 billion years ago to create our universe. There are many galaxies in the universe and we are in The Milky Way, I know I first thought of the candy bar, but that is wrong and it is home to our solar system. At the center of the solar system is the sun, the sun is only 4.6 billion years old, and I first thought the Sun was the largest plant in our solar system, but it is not a planet it is a yellow dwarf star. Its radius is 432,168.6 miles, it is way bigger than any of our planets in our solar system. If we were to compare the size of the Earth

Indecent bodies like the sun. Stars are made up of big exploding balls of gas, mostly hydrogen and helium. The sun is similarly a star made up of huge amounts of hydrogen, undergoing a continuous nuclear reaction like a hydrogen bomb. Stars come about when vast clouds of hydrogen, helium and dust contract and collapse due to gravity. The clouds came from astronomical plasma from “The Big Bang”, but the dust comes from the supernovae of other stars.

The heat and light of the sun come from the nuclear reactions of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and helium. So the sun is just one great big atom smashing, gas creating, nuclear furnace that gives off much appreciated energy. But this is not all that happens on the sun’s surface, some exciting stuff does happen up there every once in a while.