Bethel Grays. age 10

What are sunspots?

Try to imagine a storm as big as the whole world. Now stretch that to be six times as big. That is the size of the center of a fair sized sunspot. The outer edges make it twice that sizes or more. It is hard to imagine a storm blowing up on the face of the fiery sun. But sunspots are thought to b e something like storms.

In the telescopes they show up as darker spots on the bright sun. Often they occur in groups. Most last for a week or so some go on for months. Records show they are. cooler than the rest of the sun. They have magnetic fields powerful enough to affect the earth. A group of fierce ones will interfere with telephone: telegraph and radio communications. also the Northern Lights put on their best shows a few days after an outbreak of sunspots.

Sunspots seem to occur in cycles of about 11 years. During 1945 there were only about 50 groups of them. The number grew during each. of the next four years. In 1949 there were over 500 groups of sunspots. Since then the number has decreased.