Exam 8: The Sun

Astronomers often record solar images in the ____ part of the electromagnetic spectrum because the gaseous layers high in the Sun's atmosphere are very hot and emit most of their light at short wavelengths.

Astronomers refer to the dark center of a sunspot as a(n) ____

When mapping the interior of the Sun, astronomers must measure _____ as the photosphere moves up and down.

Granulation is evidence that energy in the photosphere ____.

What are the dark regions that give the Sun's photosphere a mottled appearance?

Helioseismology maps of rotation in the Sun's interior show that its internal gases rotate with equal periods.

What is the safest way to view the Sun and its sunspots?

Stars, like our Sun, generate their energy by way of nuclear _______________.

The magnetic polarities of sunspots _______________ at the end of an 11-year cycle.

What occurs during nuclear fusion within the Sun and how much energy is produced?

The chromosphere is roughly _______________ times fainter than the photosphere.

The corona is so dim that it is not visible in Earth's daytime sky.

The _______________ of the solar disk is dimmer than the center, which is caused by the absorption of light in the photosphere.

Galileo proposed that the Sun is a rotating sphere after he ____.

What is released from the proton-proton chain and is immediately absorbed by the surrounding gas, thereby heating it?

Why does the temperature of the corona rise with latitude?

During the first reaction of the proton-proton chain of nuclear fusion, a weak force causes one of the protons to transform into a neutron and emit ____.

The Babcock model of the solar magnetic cycle explains the sunspot cycle as primarily a consequence of the Sun's ____.

Figure 8-2 Which layer of the Sun's atmosphere is represented in the accompanying visual-wavelength image (Figure 8-2) ?

The corona can reach temperatures of up to ____.