29. What are sun spots and how do they interfere with communications? (A K2S Question)

From The Space Library

A sunspot is a cooler region on the surface of the Sun that is a source of magnetic disturbances. Sunspot groups can have areas that act like the north magnetic pole of a magnet and other regions that act like the south magnetic pole. Scientists now believe that sunspots allow enormous amounts of energy to be transferred via the magnetic field lines to raise the temperature of the corona to millions of degrees K. Occasionally, these field lines become twisted, and as a result, an enormous coronal mass ejection (CME) may be hurled away from the surface of the Sun. A CME may hurl hundreds of millions of tons of highly-energetic ionized particles in the direction of the Earth, which can cause failures in communication satellites, disrupt radio transmissions, and even cause overloads at power plants on Earth. These powerful CME can also cause the beautiful aurora borealis, or northern lights, and aurora australis, the southern lights, by interacting with the tenuous outer layers of our atmosphere.

---

Answer provided by Jim Zebrowski

Question and Answer extracted from the book Kids to Space - by Lonnie Schorer

Buy This Book Click here