Jimmy Nash, age 10, of Atlanta, Ga.,

What are sunspots

Pimples and rashes are very annoying ‑ especially on the face. No complexion, it seems, is perfect. Even the radiant face of the sun tends to break out from time to time. Of course, no sensible person looks straight at the sun. This„ however, has not stopped human curiosity. Long ago* the Chinese protected their eyes with smoked glass and looked at the sun low in the sky and on misty days. They were astonished at the dark blemishes that came and went over the beautiful golden face. Much, much later, these sunspots were seen by Galileo through his little telescope,

Modern telescope pictures show that the sun's complexion is far from smooth. The gassy surface is a mass of tossing waves: From time to time dark rashes and single sunspots break out and fade. Small sunspots, some 500 miles across, last a day or so. The biggest sunspots may last weeks or even months. They may be 100,000 miles wide.

Sunspots occur, we are told, in the sun's atmosphere, Here the gases are about as dense as the air over the earth. It is thin enough to let through the blazing light within. This area is the chromosphere, or light‑giving shell of the sun. Parts of this shell tend to whip up into furious cyclones. Gases spiral out from the storm centers at 60 miles a minute. This releases gas pressure at the center of the spinning vortex and causes a drop in temperature,

The normal temperature on the face of the sun is about 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Stormy sunspots may drop to 8,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The sunspot looks dark only by contrast with its brilliant surroundings. The umbra is the darkest spot in the center. It may be anywhere from 500 to 50,000 miles across. The penumbra surrounds the umbra like a blotchy, smokey cloud and may double the size of the sunspot, Altogether, the sunspot looks like a blot of ink that has run off around the edges,

The suns blemishes tend to break out in two belts just north and south of the equator. They  occur near the sun's spots. Since Galileo's day, records have records have been kept of their comings and goings. They seem to whip up in cycles of 17 and a half years. In a peak years 400 rashes of spots may pass over the face of the sun. At the very least, the radiant complexion of the sun is marred with 50 rashes a year, The year of 1956 is a year of few sunspots.

All kinds of earthly troubles have been blamed on sunspots, It is safe to say that they do not cause wars or other man‑made problems, They do however, release countless electrons and send them whizzing off into space. Some strike the air above the earth. They can interfere with radio telephone and telegraph communications. They also jostle the higher air and give us the glimmering auroras:

A stormy season on the sun can also cut down the radiant energy reaching. the earth. For some plants this may mean a good growing season, though not for all. The giant redwoods grow thicker tree rings at such times; This shows up in cross sections of these ancient tree trunks, The thickest tree rings tally with the peak sunspot years.