Take the Sunspot Quiz!

Click on your choice for each question and press the Submit button at the bottom of the page.

Question 1
What is the temperature of a sunspot region compared to its surrounding environment?
Warmer
Cooler
Same

Hint(s):

Ask yourself why the spots are dark.

Question 2
Who was the first to publish on sunspots?
Fabricius
Galileo
Scheiner
Kepler

Hint(s):

You can pick out the answer from this Web page.

Question 3
Why are sunspots dark?
Because of the strong vertical magnetic field.
Because they contain more carbon elements.
Because we are seeing elements deeper into the solar atmosphere.

Hint(s):

What can influence gas motions?

Question 4
How long (on average) is the sunspot cycle?
22 years
7 years
11 years

Hint(s):

You can learn the answer by examining this graphic image of the Sun during one solar cycle.
You can pick out the answer from this Web page.

Question 5
What is possibly the earliest time in recorded history that sunspots were observed with the naked eye (Note: Observing by naked eye is dangerous!)?
1921
1610
467 B.C.
321 A.D.

Hint(s):

A Greek philosopher that few people have heard of was the observer.
You can pick out the answer from this Web page.

Question 6
Why did Johannes Kepler miss identifying sunspots in 1607?
Telescopes were not invented yet.
The Pope forbid the astronomers at that time to observe the Sun.
He thought that he was observing Mercury.

Hint(s):

Mercury transits across the Sun's disk in only a few hours.
You can pick out the answer from this Web page.

Question 7
At the start of a new sunspot cycle, where do the new spots appear?
Anywhere on the Sun.
Near the north and south poles of the Sun.
At the middle latitudes, near the equator.
At medium latitudes, farther from the equator.

Hint(s):

This pattern of movement from the start of the sunspot cycle to the end of the sunspot cycle is revealed in the so-called "Butterfly Diagram."

Question 8

Shown above is an image of a sunspot region. What is a sunspot region most similar to?

Neptune's Great Dark Spot

A Bar Magnet

A Hurricane on Earth

Hint(s):

Pay close attention to the shape of the sunspot region.

Question 9
If the "leading" (in the sense of solar rotation) sunspot of a pair has positive polarity in the northern hemisphere, what polarity is the leading sunspot in the southern hemisphere?
Positive
Negative

Hint(s):

It's all magnetic.
You can learn the answer to this question by reading about "Hale's Polarity Law"

Would you like to learn more about sunspots? You may read what the National Solar Observatory's "Mr. Sunspot" has to say!

To the SOLAR Quick-Takes To the SOLAR Glossary

Back to the SOLAR Center

Last Modified by ALG on June 27 1997.