Sunspots Research Paper

Sunspots are dark planet sized splotches that appear on the surface of the sun. Human beings have been studying these spots dating as far back as ancient Chinese civilizations in which they studied sunspots and used them to make predictions upon their calendars. This was possible because sometimes the sun produces big enough sunspots that they’re visible to the human eye, and behind a filter such as fog or clouds it was possible for these ancient astronomers to track their activity. Now due to technological advancements, humans have been able to more effectively study and observe sunspots, and even theorize how they’re created and what their existence might mean for those on Earth. Astronomy has come a long way since the time of the ancient
The spots are much cooler than the surrounding portion of the sun’s surface. While the sun’s surface stays around 5000K sunspots stay at the relatively cool temperature of 4000K. This then leads to the theory that sunspots correspond to the Earth’s climate. It is believed that periods of lower sunspot activity correspond to cooler temperatures while periods of high activity correspond to warmer climates. The biggest evidence for this, is the period referred to as, “the Maunder minimum”, this was a period of between 1645 and 1715, and during this time the Earth a considerably colder climate, and the period has even been dubbed the, “little ice age”. There is even a corresponding warm period, named the, “warm medieval age”, that is believe to be related to the large amount of sunspot activity at the time, and it is even believed that we are experiencing what has been called the, “warm modern age”, and that increased sunspot activity may be part of the reason the earth has been experiencing an increase in temperature. However there has never been any definitive evidence to prove the relationship between the sunspots and the Earth’s climate, and as of now the correspondence between them may be entirely
The presence of the cycle was originally discovered by, Samuel Schwabe, and his study of the sun found that sunspots seem to fluctuate quite regularly between periods of high and low activity. For example there has been a year in which there were no more than three sunspots that were recorded, followed by another year in which there were over one hundred and fifty seven recorded sunspots. The cycle averages about eleven years, but in actuality it seems to flux between nine to fourteen years. This cycle ended up playing a huge factor in our observations, as it turned out that we our sun is currently experiencing a low period of sunspots, meaning that what sunspots do appear on the surface, are rather few and far between, and slightly smaller, than what was to be expected. This affected us in the beginning of our observations, and will be discussed further, in the section regarding