SUNSPOT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sunspot mean? 

• SUNSPOT (noun)
  The noun SUNSPOT has 1 sense:

1. a cooler darker spot appearing periodically on the sun's photosphere; associated with a strong magnetic field

  Familiarity information: SUNSPOT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUNSPOT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A cooler darker spot appearing periodically on the sun's photosphere; associated with a strong magnetic field

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Synonyms:

macula; sunspot

Hypernyms ("sunspot" is a kind of...):

dapple; fleck; maculation; patch; speckle; spot (a small contrasting part of something)

 Context examples 

This sunspot has changed shape and size as it slowly made its way across the sun’s face over the past week and half.

(Solar Dynamics Observatory Captures Images of a Mid-Level Solar Flare, NASA)

In addition to showing the Mercury transit, the same Mastcam frames show two sunspots approximately the size of Earth.

(Mercury passes in front of the Sun, as seen from Mars, NASA)

In the second study, scientists explored the mechanism for how a terminator event could trigger the start of a new sunspot cycle.

('Terminators' on the sun trigger plasma tsunamis, start of new solar cycles, National Science Foundation)

Large sunspots are evident in views from Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam).

(Curiosity Mars Rover Tracks Sunspots, NASA)

These changes result from "starspots" which, like the more-familiar sunspots on our sun, form when magnetic field concentrations prevent the normal release of energy at a star's surface.

(Kepler Watches Stellar Dancers in the Pleiades Cluster, NASA)

As the magnetic disruption from a sunspot approaches Earth, it can intensify the Aurora Borealis and Australis but it also dings the performance of satellites and power grids.

(Sun's mood swings not so strange after all, Wikinews)

The sunspots move only at the pace of the sun's rotation, much slower than the movement of Mercury.

(Mercury passes in front of the Sun, as seen from Mars, NASA)

This sunspot will rotate out of our view over the right side of the sun by April 20, 2016.

(Solar Dynamics Observatory Captures Images of a Mid-Level Solar Flare, NASA)

Information about sunspots that develop before they rotate into view of Earth and Earth-orbiting spacecraft is helpful in predicting space-weather effects of solar emissions related to sunspots.

(Curiosity Mars Rover Tracks Sunspots, NASA)

The Sun has long been known to go through eleven-year cycles of high and low activity, including sunspots, which Strugarek likened to solar volcanoes.

(Sun's mood swings not so strange after all, Wikinews)