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• n  the intensely luminous surface of a star (especially the sun)

• Because hotter plasma from the sun's interior cannot move into the sunspots, they remain relatively cooler (and darker) than the rest of the photosphere.
• Alterations of the sun's " spots"apparently dark bodies of gas thousands of miles high and wide, and probably cooler than the rest of the " photosphere "have been observed for .
• As the sun revolved in its 25-day cycle, the beam of the vast sunspot which erupted from its surface (photosphere) late in July was again to touch the earth this week.

News & Articles

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• Huge Filament 50 Times Size of Earth Erupts from Sun
  A twisted rope of gas more than 50 Earths across roiled above the sun's photosphere yesterday and then erupted, spewing billions of tons of particles out into space at millions of miles per hour. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the action. The screenshot above is from an animation of the filament eruption viewed by SDO in extreme ultraviolet light. Click on it to watch the animation ...
  Aug. 30, 2013 - Discover