Storms
Although the Sun is a relatively calm star compared to others, it
still has several different kinds of violent storms that occur
often. Some of these include prominences, solar flares, solar
wind, and sunspots.
Prominences are storms that are seen from Earth as bright arches
or loops of gas (1). They originate in the cromosphere and
sometimes bend backwards and shower gasses back onto the Sun (1).
Some prominences erupt to heights of up to one million kilometers
and travel past the sun’s surface (1).
Solar flares are observed as bright bursts of light on the
Sun’s surface (1). These storms usually last less than an
hour and can reach temperatures that are two times the rest of
the Sun’s surface (1). Huge amounts of energy are released
during a solar flare that sometimes interferes with
telecommunications on the side of the Earth facing the Sun (2).
These storms are sometimes accompanied by the Northern and
Southern Lights (2).
Solar wind is described as a continuous stream of high-energy
particles that is released into space in all directions from the
Sun’s corona (1). The wind is sometimes increased in speed
by solar flares. Solar wind causes interference with radio
signals and telephone communications here on Earth (1). It also
affects the way the tail of a comet is pointed, which is always
away from the Sun.
Sunspots are dark areas on the Sun’s surface that are
relatively colder than other areas of the Sun. They are located
in the photosphere and range from sixteen to 160,000 km in
diameter (1). The number of sunspots is always changing, but
there is a big change in the number every ten to eleven years
(1). Because sunspots are shown to move on the Sun’s
surface, it was inferred that the Sun is rotating on an axis.
Since it is gaseous, the sun rotates faster at the equator at
around 26.8 days per rotation, than it does at the poles, which
lasts for about 35 days (3).