What are sunspots?

Sunspots are like freckles on the Sun’s face, but way bigger and cooler.

Imagine your skin getting a little patchy when you're outside too long, that's kind of what happens to the Sun sometimes. The Sun is mostly made of hot gas, and it's usually super bright and warm. But sunspots are areas that are slightly cooler than the rest, so they look darker from Earth.

The Sun has a "skin" called the photosphere, think of it like the top layer of your skin. Underneath this layer, the Sun's gas moves in big loops, kind of like a giant lava lamp. When these loops get tangled up, they can cause magnetic storms on the Sun’s surface. These magnetic storms pull some of the hot gas away from the surface, making it cooler, and that creates a sunspot.

From Earth, sunspots look like dark spots on the Sun. They can be as big as Earth itself! Sometimes you can see them with special glasses or even through a telescope if you're lucky. They come in pairs, kind of like how your eyes work together, one is a little cooler and darker, and the other is its friend, also cool but not quite as dark.

Sunspots are just one of the many interesting things happening on the Sun’s surface every day! Sunspots are like freckles on the Sun’s face, but way bigger and cooler.

Imagine your skin getting a little patchy when you're outside too long, that's kind of what happens to the Sun sometimes. The Sun is mostly made of hot gas, and it's usually super bright and warm. But sunspots are areas that are slightly cooler than the rest, so they look darker from Earth.

The Sun has a "skin" called the photosphere, think of it like the top layer of your skin. Underneath this layer, the Sun's gas moves in big loops, kind of like a giant lava lamp. When these loops get tangled up, they can cause magnetic storms on the Sun’s surface. These magnetic storms pull some of the hot gas away from the surface, making it cooler, and that creates a sunspot.