WHAT ARE SUNSPOTS?

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                        Visible features on the sun's surface, sunspots are dark regions on the photosphere where a particularly strong portion of the sun's magnetic field has slowed the gas that is rising to the surface. The center of a sunspot, depressed a little below the level of the surrounding gas, exhibits a lower temperature SUNSPOT 536, just left of center, can flare and affect Earth. The spot itself is six times wider than our planet. than the surrounding photosphere, creating a visible spot. Sunspots can measure up to several times Earth's diameter. Their activity increases and decreases in an I -year cycle. Early in each cycle, most sunspots appear near the sun's 300 N and 300 S latitudes. Later in the cycle, they occur closer to its equator. During the low point in the cycle, called the solar minimum, the sun goes for days or even weeks without flaring.

Photosphere: Visible surface of the sun, from which is emitted most of the sun's light that reaches Earth directly.
 Chromosphere: Layer of the sun's atmosphere located above the photosphere and below the corona. 

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