The photosphere is a star's outer shell from which light is radiated. It extends into a star's surface until the plasma becomes opaque, equivalent to an optical depth of approximately 2⁄3, [1] or equivalently, a depth from which 50% of light will escape without being scattered.
A photosphere is the region of a luminous object, usually a star, that is transparent to photons of certain wavelengths.
The term photosphere is derived from Ancient Greek roots, φῶς, φωτός/phos, photos meaning "light" and σφαῖρα/sphaira meaning "sphere", in reference to it being a spherical surface that is perceived to emit light.[ citation needed ]
The surface of a star is defined to have a temperature given by the effective temperature in the Stefan–Boltzmann law. Stars, except neutron stars, have no solid or liquid surface. [note 1] Therefore, the photosphere is typically used to describe the Sun's or another star's visual surface.
The Sun is composed primarily of the chemical elements hydrogen and helium; they account for 74.9% and 23.8%, respectively, of the mass of the Sun in the photosphere. All heavier elements, called metals in astronomy, account for less than 2% of the mass, with oxygen (roughly 1% of the Sun's mass), carbon (0.3%), neon (0.2%), and iron (0.2%) being the most abundant.
The Sun's photosphere has a temperature between 4,400 and 6,600 K (4,130 and 6,330 °C) (with an effective temperature of 5,772 K (5,499 °C)) [6] [7] and a density of about 3×10−4 kg/m3; [8] increasing with depth into the sun. [5] Other stars may have hotter or cooler photospheres. The Sun's photosphere is 100–400 kilometers thick. [9] [10] [11]
In the Sun's photosphere, the most ubiquitous phenomena are granules—convection cells of plasma each approximately 1,000 km (620 mi) in diameter with hot rising plasma in the center and cooler plasma falling in the spaces between them, flowing at velocities of 7 km/s (4.3 mi/s). Each granule has a lifespan of only about twenty minutes, resulting in a continually shifting "boiling" pattern. Grouping the typical granules are supergranules up to 30,000 km (19,000 mi) in diameter with lifespans of up to 24 hours and flow speeds of about 500 m/s (1,600 ft/s), carrying magnetic field bundles to the edges of the cells. Other magnetically related phenomena in the Sun's photosphere include sunspots and solar faculae dispersed between granules. [12] These features are too fine to be directly observed on other stars; however, sunspots have been indirectly observed, in which case they are referred to as starspots .
A corona is the outermost layer of a star's atmosphere. It is a hot but relatively dim region of plasma populated by intermittent coronal structures known as solar prominences or filaments.
In astronomy, the main sequence is a classification of stars which appear on plots of stellar color versus brightness as a continuous and distinctive band. Stars on this band are known as main-sequence stars or dwarf stars, and positions of stars on and off the band are believed to indicate their physical properties, as well as their progress through several types of star life-cycles. These are the most numerous true stars in the universe and include the Sun. Color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Norris Russell.
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light and infrared radiation with 10% at ultraviolet energies. It is by far the most important source of energy for life on Earth. The Sun has been an object of veneration in many cultures. It has been a central subject for astronomical research since antiquity.
A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by self-gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed points of light. The most prominent stars have been categorised into constellations and asterisms, and many of the brightest stars have proper names. Astronomers have assembled star catalogues that identify the known stars and provide standardized stellar designations. The observable universe contains an estimated 1022 to 1024 stars. Only about 4,000 of these stars are visible to the naked eye—all within the Milky Way galaxy.
Sunspots are temporary spots on the Sun's surface that are darker than the surrounding area. They are regions of reduced surface temperature caused by concentrations of magnetic flux that inhibit convection. Sunspots appear within active regions, usually in pairs of opposite magnetic polarity. Their number varies according to the approximately 11-year solar cycle.
A chromosphere is the second layer of a star's atmosphere, located above the photosphere and below the solar transition region and corona. The term usually refers to the Sun's chromosphere, but not exclusively.
A red dwarf is the smallest kind of star on the main sequence. Red dwarfs are by far the most common type of fusing star in the Milky Way, at least in the neighborhood of the Sun. However, due to their low luminosity, individual red dwarfs cannot be easily observed. From Earth, not one star that fits the stricter definitions of a red dwarf is visible to the naked eye. Proxima Centauri, the star nearest to the Sun, is a red dwarf, as are fifty of the sixty nearest stars. According to some estimates, red dwarfs make up three-quarters of the fusing stars in the Milky Way.
Starspots are stellar phenomena, so-named by analogy with sunspots. Spots as small as sunspots have not been detected on other stars, as they would cause undetectably small fluctuations in brightness. The commonly observed starspots are in general much larger than those on the Sun: up to about 30% of the stellar surface may be covered, corresponding to starspots 100 times larger than those on the Sun.
In astronomy, the Wilson effect is the perceived depression of a sunspot's umbra, or center, in the Sun's photosphere. The magnitude of the depression for the umbra is between 500 and 1000 km, with an average of 600 km.
HD 169830 is a star in the southern constellation of Sagittarius. It has a yellow-white hue and is dimly visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of +5.90. The star is located at a distance of 120 light years from the Sun based on parallax. It is drifting closer with a radial velocity of −17.3 km/s, and is predicted to come as close as 20.7 ly (6.4 pc) in 2.08 million years. HD 169830 is known to be orbited by two large Jupiter-like exoplanets.
A convection zone, convective zone or convective region of a star is a layer which is unstable due to convection. Energy is primarily or partially transported by convection in such a region. In a radiation zone, energy is transported by radiation and conduction.
In solar physics and observation, granules are convection cells in the Sun's photosphere. They are caused by currents of plasma in the Sun's convective zone, directly below the photosphere. The grainy appearance of the photosphere is produced by the tops of these convective cells; this pattern is referred to as granulation.
59 Aurigae, often abbreviated as 59 Aur, is a star in the constellation Auriga. Its baseline apparent magnitude is 6.1, meaning it can just barely be seen with the naked eye as a dim, yellow-white hued star. Based on parallax measurements, it is located about 483 light-years away from the Sun.
A stellar magnetic field is a magnetic field generated by the motion of conductive plasma inside a star. This motion is created through convection, which is a form of energy transport involving the physical movement of material. A localized magnetic field exerts a force on the plasma, effectively increasing the pressure without a comparable gain in density. As a result, the magnetized region rises relative to the remainder of the plasma, until it reaches the star's photosphere. This creates starspots on the surface, and the related phenomenon of coronal loops.
HD 17925 is a variable star in the equatorial constellation of Eridanus. It has the Gould designation 32 G. Eridani and the variable star designation EP Eri. The star has a yellow-orange hue and is dimly visible to the naked eye in good seeing conditions with an apparent visual magnitude that varies from 6.03 down to 6.08. It is located nearby at a distance of 34 light years from the Sun based on parallax, and is drifting further away with a radial velocity of +18 km/s. It is a likely member of the Local Association of nearby, co-moving stars. The spectrum shows a strong abundance of lithium, indicating that it is young star. This likely makes its point of origin the nearby Scorpio–Centaurus Complex.
A red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass in a late phase of stellar evolution. The outer atmosphere is inflated and tenuous, making the radius large and the surface temperature around 5,000 K or lower. The appearance of the red giant is from yellow-white to reddish-orange, including the spectral types K and M, sometimes G, but also class S stars and most carbon stars.
HD 171238 is a star with an orbiting exoplanet in the southern constellation of Sagittarius. It is located at a distance of 145 light years from the Sun based on parallax measurements, and is drifting further away with a radial velocity of 21 km/s. The star has an absolute magnitude of 5.15, but at the distance of this system it is too faint to be viewed with the naked eye, having an apparent visual magnitude of 8.61.
69 Orionis is a single star in the equatorial constellation of Orion, positioned a couple of degrees to the north of Xi Orionis. It has the Bayer designation f1 Orionis; 69 Orionis is the Flamsteed designation. The star is visible to the naked eye as faint, blue-white hued point of light with an apparent visual magnitude of 4.92. It is located approximately 530 light-years from the Sun based on parallax, and is drifting further away with a radial velocity of +22 km/s. In 2015, H. Bouy and J. Alves suggested that it is a member of the newly discovered Taurion OB association.
Solar phenomena are natural phenomena which occur within the atmosphere of the Sun. They take many forms, including solar wind, radio wave flux, solar flares, coronal mass ejections, coronal heating and sunspots.
XX Trianguli, abbreviated XX Tri, is a variable star in the northern constellation of Triangulum, about 1.5° to the WNW of Beta Trianguli along the constellation border with Andromeda. It is classified as a RS Canum Venaticorum variable and ranges in brightness from magnitude 8.1 down to 8.7, which is too faint to be visible to the naked eye. The system is located at a distance of approximately 642 light years from the Sun based on parallax, but is drifting closer with a radial velocity of −26 km/s.