The sun is a massive ball of electrically charged, flaming gas.
The electromagnetic activity on the surface of the star becomes increasingly turbulent as the sun moves through its normal 11-year solar cycle.
Sunspots, which are black, planet-sized patches that emerge as a result of strong magnetic disturbances, are a natural consequence of this turbulence.
Sunspots appear black to most telescopes that use visible light. They appear this way, but why, and are they actually black?
In actuality, sunspots aren't black, as it turns out. Instead, the disparity in heat between the sunspots and their surroundings is what gives the appearance of darkness.
The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) claims that sunspots are simply dark in comparison to the sun's dazzling surface.
"An average sunspot would be about the same brightness as a full moon if you could cut it out of the sun and put it somewhere else in the night sky."
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