Before we start our citizen science project on sun spots, I wanted to look into what sun spots were and why it was important for my group to study them.

Sun spots are basically spots on the sun that appear darker than their surroundings because they are about 1500K degrees cooler. Sun spots are usually large enough to be seen with the naked eye (but don’t look directly at the sun or you’ll be blinded!). Sun spots develop and persist for various period of time and because the sun rotates, they move around with the sun. The dark center of the sun spot is called the umbra and the lighter region around is called the penumbra. What’s interesting about the sun is that because it is not a solid body, it doesn’t have a defined rotational period and so scientists have to make an estimate about the length of time it takes to rotate.

The number of sun spots present correlate with the amount of solar activity present at the moment. Solar activity (such as solar wind and magnetic storms) have effects on non-thermal radio and x-ray emissions. It is believed that sun spot activity directly effects the Earth’s climate, which is interesting to study as our climate is changing rapidly. I want to discover the relationship between sun spots and our changing climate and how celestial bodies can effect one another.

For our digital deliverable, our group is thinking about creating a documentary on sun spots to educate our peers on climate change and solar activity. We also want to document our experiences traveling upstate and actually interacting with the natural environment that surrounds us.

These are images of a sun spot and a collection of sun spots.

Bibliography:

Sun spot information and images: Sun spots. Author Unknown. Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Tennessee. http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/sun/sunspots.html

Edward, Lin. “Sunspots Could Soon Disappear for Decades: Study.” Phys.org. N.p., 15 Sept. 2010. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.

Grantham, Sarah. “Sunspots: What They Are and Why They’re Important.” Yahoo Voices. N.p., 15 July 2009. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.

Sunspots are dark spots that appear at times on the sun’s surface and can be observed through a telescope. We will report our findings to NASA to assist them in their studies of the sun through a CitizenScience project named Sun Lab.

We will drive to the Catskill Mountains and observe the sunspots on November 9th. At this time we will also complete a large portion of our deliverable, a documentary. We decided a documentary would be the best deliverable for our specific project because it is a visual project and it only makes sense to show our viewers what we experienced rather than to just tell them about it. Furthermore, we want to make our project as interesting and engaging as possible, so as to further the informal science learning process and I believe the more visual a project of this kind is, the more the learner will be engaged and want to learn more about the subject you are presenting before him/her.

We anticipate a wonderful and exciting learning experience at the Catskill mountains on November 9th and look forward to telling you about our experience!