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Vote on your Sunspot Suspect

Tutorial

Click here for large sunspot image.

The image above shows the Sun as it looks today. One of these sunspots may have all the necessary qualities for a very energetic flare that could affect the Earth. The sunspot regions are numbered in order of appearance so that scientists can communicate with each other and so you can communicate with other Sunspotters from across the nation. On this page you can vote for the most likely suspect and find out what sunspots other students think is the most likely suspect.

But first, you should do a little research to find out what makes a sunspot a likely suspect

Research
The NASA Marshall Space Flight Center has a great place to start called why We Study the Sun http://science.msfc.nasa.gov/ssl/pad/solar/whysolar.htm.

Check out the Solar Flares page http://science.msfc.nasa.gov/ssl/pad/solar/flares.htm for an explanation of the connection between sunspots and solar flares.

Active Region Monitor from Big Bear Observatories
http://www.bbso.njit.edu/arm/latest

The Sun produced by Zoom Astronomy has a page on Sunspots http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/sun/sunspots.shtml

The Sun A short slide tour w/MPEG movies outlining Sun to Earth processes. This could be used as a recap or an in-class presentation. http://www.astro.uva.nl/demo/sun/kaft.htm

Magnetism and the Sun Information and activities from the Stanford Solar Center to help high school students understand how magnetism drives solar activities. Grades 11-12 http://solar-center.stanford.edu/magnetism/index.html