TAMU Physics & Astronomy

Are sunspots dark? 🤔 ☀️ #space #shorts #sun

Sunspots are cooler areas of the sun; not cold, but less hot. Because the temperature in these regions is lower, the light emitted is much dimmer and gets overpowered by the intensity of the light emitted by the rest of the sun. Therefore, when surrounded by very bright light, these areas appear dark. We're able to show a similar effect using a bright projector light and a dim light bulb. On its own, the lightbulb visibly emits light through the filament. However, as the projector is turned on, the light from the bulb is no longer noticeable, and the projector seems to cast a shadow over the filament of the bulb. The intense light from the projector noticeably overpowers the light from the bulb and makes it appear as if there was no light around the filament, and instead makes it look like a shadow. This demo was presented by Dani Alvarez Rodriguez @tamu. 👍 LIKE and SUBSCRIBE for more fun science content! ➡️ Follow our channels at https://linktr.ee/tamuphysastr #science #fyp #tamu #astronomy #sunspots