Sunspot Lab

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El Paso Community College *

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10332

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Astronomy

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Apr 3, 2024

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Astronomy Solar Lab EPCC Purpose : Learn about the sun’s solar dynamics. The Solar Basics: Review these chapter links to learn more about our Sun: • Astronomy (Chapter 15) ; Astronomy (Chapter 16) Questions – Concisely answer within three (3) sentences: 1. Sketch the interior of the sun and describe what each layer does. Core: Region where hydrogen turns into helium through the nuclear fusion reaction, with temperatures to be more than 15 million degrees Celsius; also known as the hottest area of the sun. Radiative Zone: Radiative diffusion and thermal conduction, the energy in this layer transports outside, that then travels in the form of electromagnetic radiation by photons. Convection Zone: Uses convection mode to transfer energy. The temperature at its base is about 2 million degrees Celsius which is low enough for heavier ions like carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, iron and calcium to hold to electrons. 2. Describe how the sun’s hydrostatic equilibrium works in the sun. The structure of the sun adjusts until the gravitational “pull” towards its center is just balance by the “push” of the gas pressure outwards. Understanding NASA’s SDO mission. NOTE: DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN. We will use NASA data to analyze the sun’s surface features and dynamics. Go to the website to access this data: https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/mission/ Plot Analysis (Refer to figure 1 and 2): In the menu bar, go to data, The sun now, and select EVE link. Once you see a graph with data plotted on it, look for a Time and Date section and input a start date 60 days prior to the current date. Input the current date for the end date, and select submit. Once 1

Astronomy Solar Lab EPCC you get a new plot, save it as a PNG file. From this file, identify and highlight a day with the highest irradiance. Figure 2: Enter today's date and the date of 30 days prior Figure 1: Select "data', "EVE Data" highlighted in red, (blue arrows), click “submit” (red arrow), then save the and access the irradiance data. data plot as a PNG file (black arrow) Analyzing Solar Activity: Go back to the main SDO website. Then go to main menu → select data→The Sun Now. Of the array of images for today’s date, select the following and save them as a JPG file: 171 Å, 1600 Å, HMI Colorized Magnetogram, Intensitygram and HMI Dopplergram. Use the following links to learn what each image describes about our Sun: • https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/sdo-aia-171-angstrom/ • https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/sdo-aia-1600-angstrom/ • https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/sdo-hmi-magnetogram/ • https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/main/item/158 • https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/sdo-hmi-doppergram/ I n-situ solar image An image will be taken during class/lab of the Sun, which will be used to study the surface dynamics occurring on the Sun. Remember DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN . I mage and data submission In the table below, place those images and the plot you gathered from class and the website. Image of Sun (class/lab) • 171 Å (X- Ray) • 1600 Å (UV) 2

Astronomy Solar Lab EPCC • HMI Colorized Magnetogram • Intensitygram • HMI Dopplergram PNG Data Plot 3

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Astronomy Solar Lab EPCC Questions – Answer concisely within three (3) sentences. You may use your own sketches to help illustrate your answers : 1. Define irradiance. The power density of the radiation incident on a surface 2. Define the electromagnetic spectrum . The electromagnetic spectrum describes different kinds of light, including those that the human eye cannot see. 3. What features can you see in some of the images that you cannot see in your own image taken of the sun? Features we could not see with our image of the sun compared to the other images would be the flares, spots; in depth details of information while an image taken of the sun would overexpose the light with no details. 4. What feature on the sun may yield the high irradiance you identified? The feature on the sun may yield the high irradiance identified is 171 A. 5. Are these features (if any) correspond to any features shown in the magnetogram, intensitygram and Dopplergram? No, they do not. 6. How does viewing the sun in the UV and X-ray radiation help understand what’s going on in the sun? Viewing the sun in UV and X-ray radiation exposes chaos of the sun’s surface, to grasp the different images captured and study them. Solar Processes: CNO and Proton-Proton chains Proton-Proton https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/c/cno+cycle CNO Cycle http://burro.cwru.edu/academics/Astr221/StarPhys/ppchain.html Questions – Answer concisely within 3 sentences. 7. How many hydrogen atoms are needed to make a helium atom? 4 hydrogen atoms; two protons and two neutrons 8. How does Carbon, Nitrogen and Oxygen form in the CNO cycle? carbon and hydrogen nuclei collide to initiate a series of reactions that form nitrogen, oxygen, and ultimately, helium. The nitrogen and oxygen nuclei do not survive but interact to form carbon again. Therefore, the outcome is the same as in the proton-proton chain: four hydrogen atoms disappear, and in their place, a single helium atom is created. Useful links https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/solar-activity/en/ http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~blackman/ast104/spectrum.html https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/finding-right-wavelength 4

Sunspot Lab

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