Web Links Solar Rotation Sunspots Sun's Death Sunspots Sunspots are relatively cool, dark patches on the sun's surface. Individual sunspots only last for one to two weeks, but the number of sunspots follows an 11 year cycle. The current sunspot cycle will peak in the middle of 2000.
Sunspots are visible from Earth.
In the umbra, the Sun's magnetic field is very strong. The penumbra is the outer, relatively light region of a sun spot. A pore is a small sunspot that doesn't have a penumbra . Granules are regions of the sun where hot solar material comes to the solar surface. It is almost as though the surface of the Sun is bubbling like a pot of boiling water.