Ast: Ch. 16 Quiz

The ____ coincides with the period known as the "little ice age" of Europe and North America. This provides one piece of evidence that suggests a link between solar activity and the amount of solar energy Earth receives.

Maunder sunspot minimum

If the material at the Sun's equator is seen to rotate about the Sun's axis with a period of 25 days, what is the equivalent period of rotation for the solar Polar Regions?

About 35 days, much longer than that of the equator

Which of the following statements is a CORRECT description of sunspots on the Sun?

Their number varies over a period of about 11 years, but there can be periods of several decades at a time when no or almost no sunspots are seen on the Sun.

In the year 2003, 2 years after solar maximum, the Sun's magnetic north pole was in the Sun's northern hemisphere. Of the following years, which is the earliest in which we would expect to find the magnetic north pole in the Sun's southern hemisphere?

2011 A.D., after the first solar minimum following 2003

How is energy transported outward in the Sun's interior?

Radiation in the core region and convection in the envelope

We see more deeply into the Sun at its center than at its limb because of the interaction of the light with atoms of the gas. What conclusion can be reached therefore if the Sun appears less bright at its limb than at the center?

Temperature decreases with increasing height in the solar photosphere.

The centers of granules

are hot material rising to the photosphere from below.

The visible spectrum of the Sun

is a bright continuous spectrum, containing numerous absorption lines created by the atmosphere of the Sun.

Spicules on the Sun are found

mostly along the edges of supergranular cells in the chromosphere.

One of the processes carrying energy from the core of the Sun to its surface is convection. The process of convection involves the

motion of hot gases.

The sun creates its energy by the process of

nuclear fusion.

Granulation is caused by

rising and sinking gases below the photosphere.

A ____ is believed to occur when energy, stored in a twist in the solar magnetic field above a sunspot, is suddenly released.

solar flare

The continuous spectrum (i.e., the blackbody portion of the spectrum) of a sunspot, compared to that of the quiet solar surface, appears

somewhat redder.

The photosphere of the Sun is the

visible surface of the Sun, where granules and sunspots are found.