THE Sun is covered in tiny bright dots and they’ve been baffling scientists.
A new study could have finally solved the mystery of these dots that continue to pop up and fade on the solar surface.
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The small spots appear and disappear in less than a minute on average.
They’re different from the larger sunspots that regularly produce solar flares.
Sunspots are dark regions that pop up on the Sun due to magnetism inside the burning mass.
They can last between a few hours to a few months and are considered ‘dead’ when they start breaking apart.
Solar physicists also spotted tiny bright freckles on the solar surface and decided to study them.
They called them “solar dots” and it’s hoped understanding them will give us a better understanding of the inner workings of the Sun.
New analysis of the solar dots has been published in The Astrophysical Journal.
It revealed that the solar dots could be due to magnetic activity within the Sun.
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The finding actually provides more questions that answers as it suggests the Sun is more complex than scientists thought.
Researchers observed 170 solar dots that were around 420 miles wide.
That may sound huge but it’s actually pretty tiny for the Sun, which has a diameter of 864,938 miles.
The dots were found to be about 30% brighter than the plasma around them.
Scientist’s created a simulation of the dots and think they could represent moments of magnetic reconnection when magnetic field lines descend into the Sun and cross with those that are rising upwards.
However, some of the dots didn’t appear in the right regions for this to fully explain the phenomenon so there could also be other explanations.
The solar dots were originally observed by the NASA-ESA Solar Orbiter, which launched in 2020.
It’s been observing the Sun and its magnetic field ever since.
We know the Sun follows an 11 year solar cycle, which is controlled by its magnetic field.
It’s driven by the poles on the Sun swapping places around each 11 years.
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