Sunspots' Secrets Unraveling

For a team of scientists from the University of Hawaii and the National Solar Observatory, Sacramento Peak, there is no more fitting place to observe sunspots than Sunspot, New Mexico. Using a bypass approach, the astronomers measured how much molecular hydrogen (H₂) — a form of hydrogen normally associated with cooler places than the Sun’s scorching surface — exists in sunspots’ centers. The team’s detection of H₂ inside sunspots, a first in solar astronomy, may help explain the behavior of magnetic fields inside the dark phenomena.

Astronomers using the Swedish 1-meter Solar Telescope imaged Active Region 10030 (above) on 15 July 2002. A new study suggests that the formation of molecular hydrogen in spots' centers may encourage the superstrong magnetic fields detected in such phenomena.

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

 

The presence of H₂ inside sunspots has eluded scientists for many decades. Since the 1970s scientists have observed H₂ in areas above sunspots using spacecraft, but they were never able to observe the molecule inside the spots themselves. Because H₂ existed above sunspots it was a pretty good bet that it was also in the spots’ cooler centers, called umbrae, says coauthor Sarah Jaeggli (now at Montana State University).
MORE: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/Sunspots-Secrets-Unraveling-139212143.html

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