SUNSPOTS ACTIVE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20476, 30 November 1934, Page 4

SUNSPOTS ACTIVE.

Outburst Noticed After Quiet Period. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, November 29. A development on the sun, observed yesterday at Kelburn Observatory, is of great astronomical interest. For the last few months there has been a scarcity of sunspots, and those that have been observed were small and feeble. This has been rather disappointing to solar workers, as the period of maximum activity certainly commenced in October, 1933, when sunspots of high latitude were observed. Mr J. L. Thomsen, director of the Solar Section of the New Zealand Astronomical Society, stated to-day that for the last two days there had been a small, apparently insignificant sunspot visible, also there were areas of intense faculae, which are really patches of highly luminous gas above the sun’s surface. To-day, however, an outburst of activity was clearly indicated. “ Although, individual spots are not large, and may appear insignificant to the unskilled observer, yet the fact that so many of them have appeared over such a large area of the sun within fifteen to twenty hours gives evidence of the sun’s present active state,” Mr Thomsen said. “ Although there was only one spot yesterday, there now are three groups, containing eight, five and seven spots respectively. They stretch across the sun's surface for a distance of 252,000 miles Indications are that still greater ac tiyity may be expected, and the sun will be keenly watched.”