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Mars-sized 'Light-bridge' on Surface of Sun Appears to Signal Break-up of Vast Sunspot
Newsweek ^ | 8/10/20 | Aristos Georgiou

Posted on 08/10/2020 8:57:01 PM PDT by BenLurkin

Amateur astronomer and Florida resident Howard Eskildsen snapped an image of the "light bridge"—which has a length that's roughly equal to the diameter of Mars—in a recently formed sunspot dubbed AR2770, spaceweather.com reported.

These phenomena are caused by strong magnetic field concentrations, which inhibit convection—the transfer of heat from one place to another within gases and liquids. This process heats the solar surface.

Hot "bubbles" of plasma—charged particles that are one of the four fundamental states of matter—are transported from deeper, hotter layers to the surface, whereas cooler plasma is transported back to the interior...

According to Felipe, light bridges are bright, elongated structures that are commonly present in sunspots, which connect regions across the cooler, darker abyss of the sunspot.

They are created by the intrusion of plasma where the magnetic fields are weak into the strongly magnetized sunspot. In the light bridges, convection can still take place, which is why they are hotter than the rest of the sunspot and, thus, look brighter.

While there is still much we don't know about light bridges, they usually herald the break-up of the sunspot in question.

Currently there is not much activity on the sun and AR2770 is one of the most interesting features on our star at this time, according to Felipe. In fact, AR2770 is one of the first sunspots from the next 11 year solar cycle that scientists think is starting around now.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: ar2770; astronomy; aurora; carringtonevent; catastrophism; cme; coronalmassejection; lightbridge; maunderminimum; science; sida; solarflare; sun; sunspot; sunspots
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To: Redcitizen

“Charge of the light bridge-gade.”

“Galaxies to right of them,
Galaxies to left of them,
Galaxies in front of them
Volleyed and thundered;”


21 posted on 08/11/2020 2:31:55 PM PDT by moovova
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To: perfect stranger
You should wear a hat when sitting outside.

Why now when I have been sitting in the sun years with no burned ears

I always wear a ball cap to shade my eyes

22 posted on 08/11/2020 5:40:45 PM PDT by tubebender
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To: moovova

Half a light year, half a light year,
Half a light year onward,
All in the gravity well
Rode the six hundred.


23 posted on 08/11/2020 5:43:54 PM PDT by Redcitizen (Nobody needs a 10 round magazine. You need a 30 round magazine. Yeah)
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To: tubebender

get one of those straw hats with the brim. cover your ears old man. no reason to suffer.


24 posted on 08/11/2020 5:45:02 PM PDT by CJ Wolf ( #wwg1wga #Godwins #150Kclub)
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