MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.

1) The thickness of the photosphere is about 100 times the diameter of the Earth, and large sunspots are larger than
our whole planet.
A) True
B) False
Answer: A

2) The Sun's radius is one astronomical unit by definition.

A) True
B) False
Answer: B

3) The Sun's structure is uniform throughout its interior, with no evidence of different layers.
A) True
B) False
Answer: B

4) The solar constant refers to that fact that the Sun's luminosity has remained unchanged in the age of the solar
system.
A) True
B) False
Answer: B

5) The Sun's average density is about the same at Jupiter's, suggesting a similar composition.
A) True
B) False
Answer: A

6) Granulation is the most obvious proof of solar convective energy transport.

A) True
B) False
Answer: A

7) The granules in the photosphere are about as big as Texas, or around 1,000 km across.
A) True
B) False
Answer: A

8) The final step in transporting energy to the surface of the Sun is via convection.
A) True
B) False
Answer: A

9) The bright photosphere is much hotter than the faint corona.

A) True
B) False
Answer: B

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10) The chromosphere is faint because of its low density.
A) True
B) False
Answer: A

11) The proton storms in the solar wind travel at almost the speed of light.
A) True
B) False
Answer: B

12) The solar corona is much cooler than the Sun's surface; hence, we must wait for a total solar eclipse to glimpse it
with the naked eye.
A) True
B) False
Answer: B

13) The solar wind is constantly removing mass from the Sun.
A) True
B) False
Answer: A

14) The photosphere is the coolest layer close to the Sun, for the radiation of visible light allows it to cool off
efficiently.
A) True
B) False
Answer: A

15) The Sun's magnetic field is very weak compared to Earth's.

A) True
B) False
Answer: B

16) A typical solar flare lasts only a few days.

A) True
B) False
Answer: B

17) Sunspots usually come in pairs of north and south magnetic poles.
A) True
B) False
Answer: A

18) The sunspot cycle averages about 11 months.

A) True
B) False
Answer: B

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19) Observations of sunspots at different solar latitudes prove that the Sun, like the gas giants, rotates differentially.
A) True
B) False
Answer: A

20) The prolonged period of few sunspots between 1645 and 1715 is known at the Maunder Minimum.
A) True
B) False
Answer: A

21) The current sunspot cycle is the most active in a century.

A) True
B) False
Answer: B

22) Prominences are extensions of the solar magnetic fields above sunspots.
A) True
B) False
Answer: A

23) Although sunspots are cooler areas in the photosphere, when they increase in number that tells us the Sun is
becoming more active.
A) True
B) False
Answer: A

24) The solar corona is best studied using X-ray telescopes.

A) True
B) False
Answer: A

25) The Sun is actually more luminous at sunspot minimum than at maximum.
A) True
B) False
Answer: B

26) The solar neutrinos observed on Earth come from the hot spots in the corona.
A) True
B) False
Answer: B

27) During the fusion process, mass is converted into energy.

A) True
B) False
Answer: A

28) The Sun produces energy by fusing hydrogen into helium.

A) True
B) False
Answer: A

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29) In the proton-proton chain, helium atoms are fused into hydrogen.
A) True
B) False
Answer: B

30) The proton-proton cycle converts all of the mass of the four hydrogen atoms into pure energy.
A) True
B) False
Answer: B

31) Solar neutrinos take a little more than eight hours to get from the Sun's core to Earth.
A) True
B) False
Answer: B

32) The Solar Neutrino Problem is that we observe more neutrinos than predicted.
A) True
B) False
Answer: B

33) Most of the neutrinos given off by the Sun are changing form in the eight minutes before they reach us.
A) True
B) False
Answer: A

34) Although protons repel each other at a distance, they will actually bind if they come close enough together.
A) True
B) False
Answer: A

35) Without the strong nuclear force, the universe would be made only of hydrogen.
A) True
B) False
Answer: A

36) Unlike the nuclear reactions in the Sun, everyday chemical reactions involve only the electromagnetic forces.
A) True
B) False
Answer: A

37) The temperature of the photosphere is about

A) 3,200 K.
B) 5,800 K.
C) 11,000 K.
D) one million K.
E) ten million K.
Answer: B

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38) Given that a large sunspot, about 100× smaller than the Sun, is about the same size as our planet, how many
Earths could fit inside the Sun's vast volume?
A) 100
B) 1,000
C) 10,000
D) 100,000
E) one million
Answer: E

39) What is the meaning of the solar constant?

A) the fact that the amount of hydrogen turning into helium in the core is fixed
B) the fact that features on the Sun appear to never change
C) the regularity of the 11-year sunspot cycle
D) the amount of energy the Earth receives per unit area and unit time
E) the stability of the Sun's luminosity for as long as life has existed on Earth
Answer: D

40) The average density of the Sun is most similar to which object?
A) Jupiter
B) Mercury
C) Halley's Comet's nucleus
D) the Moon
E) the Earth
Answer: A

41) Which of these are NOT associated with the active Sun?
A) prominences
B) sunspots
C) aurora
D) flares
E) granulation
Answer: E

42) Typically a granule in the photosphere is about

A) the size of a city, 20-30 kilometers across.
B) the size of our Moon, about 3,000 km across.
C) as big as Jupiter, around 100,000 km wide.
D) the size of Texas, about 1,000 km across.
E) the size of Earth, around 12,000 km across.
Answer: D

43) What two energy transport mechanisms, in order from outside the core to the surface, are found in the Sun?
A) radiation; conduction
B) convection; conduction
C) radiation; convection
D) conduction; radiation
E) conduction; convection
Answer: C

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44) The outward pressure of hot gas in the Sun
A) is increasing the Sun's diameter.
B) is cooling the photosphere.
C) is responsible for variations in the sunspot cycle.
D) is balanced by the inward gravitational pressure.
E) weakens the magnetic field.
Answer: D

45) When we glimpse the chromosphere at the start and end of totality, its color is
A) yellow, like the photosphere below it.
B) green (the famous flash).
C) white from the moonlight.
D) blue, due to the ionization of nitrogen by the magnetic fields.
E) red, due to ionized hydrogen at lower pressure.
Answer: E

46) The solar winds blow outward from

A) the Sun's poles only.
B) flares.
C) coronal holes.
D) the entire photosphere.
E) sunspots.
Answer: C

47) From inside out, which is in the correct order for the structure of the Sun?
A) core, convective zone, radiative zone
B) core, photosphere, radiative zone, corona
C) core, chromosphere, photosphere
D) core, radiative zone, convective zone, chromosphere
E) core, convective zone, radiative zone, granulation
Answer: D

48) A loop of gas following the magnetic field lines between sunspots' poles is a
A) flare.
B) coronal mass ejection.
C) prominence.
D) coronal hole.
E) ray.
Answer: C

49) How long does the sunspot cycle last, on average?

A) about 76 years
B) between 25 and 35 days
C) about 11 years
D) about seven years
E) 365.25 days
Answer: C

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50) Visible sunspots lie in the
A) corona.
B) granulation in the photosphere.
C) transition zone.
D) radiative zone.
E) chromosphere.
Answer: B

51) As the Sun rotates, an individual sunspot can be tracked across its face. From eastern to western limb, this takes
about
A) two weeks.
B) a week.
C) 5.5 years.
D) 12 hours.
E) a month.
Answer: A

52) The most striking example of solar variability was the

A) Maunder Minimum from 1645-1715.
B) Dust Bowl drought of the 1930s.
C) the fall of Rome.
D) Sporer Minimum that doomed the Anasazi.
E) Joseph's seven lean years in the Old Testament.
Answer: A

53) A maximum in solar activity should next occur about

A) 2020.
B) 2017.
C) 2019.
D) 2023.
E) 2027.
Answer: D

54) Sunspots
A) come in pairs, representing the north and south magnetic fields.
B) are always found close to the Sun's poles.
C) travel over the surface of the Sun from pole to pole.
D) are relatively constant in number every year.
E) were most numerous during the Maunder Minimum.
Answer: A

55) During a period of high solar activity, the corona

A) is more irregular.
B) becomes smooth and even.
C) cools almost to the temperature of the photosphere.
D) shrinks to half its normal size.
E) disappears.
Answer: A

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56) Sunspots are dark splotches on the Sun. Which statement is true?
A) They are extremely hot, but cooler than the surrounding areas of the Sun.
B) They are associated with areas of very low magnetic fields.
C) They are extremely cold objects, as cold as Pluto.
D) They are solid bodies floating on the surface of the Sun.
E) They are hotter than the surrounding areas of the Sun.
Answer: A

57) Suppose a large flare is detected optically. How long until radio interference arrives?
A) simultaneously
B) 8.5 minutes later
C) about 12 hours
D) about four days
E) no relation between the two
Answer: A

58) While observing the Sun, you note a large number of sunspots. What can you conclude?
A) The Sun's rotation is slower than average.
B) This is a period of low solar activity.
C) There are likely to be an above average number of flares and prominences.
D) The Sun is less luminous than usual.
E) Earth's climate will be unusually cold.
Answer: C

59) What natural barrier usually prevents two protons from combining?
A) dark energy
B) gravity
C) the weak nuclear force
D) the strong nuclear force
E) electromagnetic repulsion
Answer: E

60) The critical temperature to initiate the proton-proton cycle in the cores of stars is
A) 3,000 K.
B) 5,800 K.
C) 2,300,000 K.
D) 10 million K.
E) 100 million K.
Answer: D

61) In the proton-proton cycle, the helium atom and neutrino have less mass than the original hydrogen. What
happens to the "lost" mass?
A) It is converted to energy.
B) It is recycled back into hydrogen.
C) It is ejected into space.
D) It is transformed into electrons.
E) Conservation of mass dictates no mass can be lost.
Answer: A

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62) The solution to the solar neutrino problem was
A) the corona is opaque to much of the neutrino radiation.
B) 2/3 of the neutrinos transform into a new type during the 8-minute trip to Earth.
C) the Sun's core is cooling down, producing less neutrinos that expected.
D) the Earth's ozone layer absorbs 2/3 of the neutrinos in transit.
E) our solar energy equations were just wrong, and needed much reworking.
Answer: B

63) The primary source of the Sun's energy is

A) dark energy.
B) the weak force creating energy from uranium decay.
C) the strong force fusing hydrogen into helium.
D) oxidation of carbon in the core.
E) gravitational collapse of the helium towards the core.
Answer: C

64) In the proton-proton cycle, the positron is

A) a spin conservation particle.
B) intermediate between the proton and neutron in mass.
C) the chief means energy reaches the photosphere.
D) an anti-electron.
E) massless.
Answer: D

65) Which is the net result of the proton-proton chain?

A) 2 protons → deuterium + a positron + an antineutrino + X-rays
B) 4 protons → 1 helium 4 + 2 neutrinos + gamma rays
C) 4 protons → 1 helium 4 + a positron + a neutrino + gamma rays
D) 4 protons → 2 helium 2 + 2 positrons + ultraviolet radiation
E) 6 protons → 2 helium 4 + 3 positrons + 3 neutrinos + gamma rays
Answer: B

66) The speed of light is 3.00 × 108 m/s. If 2.00 kg of mass is converted to energy, how much energy will be
produced?
A) 1.50 × 108 J
B) 6.00 × 104 J
C) 9.00 × 1016 J
D) 1.80 × 1017 J
E) 6.00 × 108 J
Answer: D

67) The pattern of hot convective cells rising in the photosphere is called
A) flares.
B) granulation.
C) prominences.
D) sunspots.
E) aurora.
Answer: B

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68) Stellar spectra tell us that ________ is the second most abundant element in the Sun.
A) carbon
B) iron
C) helium
D) hydrogen
E) oxygen
Answer: C

69) The high temperature of the corona is directly responsible for

A) flares.
B) prominences.
C) the solar wind.
D) aurora.
E) sunspots.
Answer: C

70) While the photosphere produces chiefly visible light, most coronal energy is in the form of
A) radio waves.
B) infrared radiation.
C) X-rays.
D) ultraviolet light.
E) gamma rays.
Answer: C

71) A loop or sheet of gas hanging above an active region of the Sun is a(n) ________, often striking along the limb
during total eclipses.
A) sunspot
B) aurora
C) granule
D) flare
E) prominence
Answer: E

72) The strongest magnetic fields in the photosphere lie near

A) prominences.
B) sunspots.
C) granules.
D) flares.
E) auroras.
Answer: B

73) The ________-year solar cycle is characterized by a variation in the number of sunspots through a reversal of
the magnetic polarity of the Sun as a whole.
A) 2
B) 10
C) 11
D) 22
E) 44
Answer: D

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 74) A solar ________ is a sudden, violent disruption around sunspots, releasing a tremendous amount of energy in
almost all wavelengths.
A) flare
B) granule
C) prominence
D) aurora
E) sunspot
Answer: A

SHORT ANSWER. Write the word or phrase that best completes each statement or answers the question.

75) The two spacecraft constantly observing the Sun are ________ and ________.
Answer: SOHO; SDO

76) The ________ transport subsurface material from the Sun's equator to its poles and back at a depth far below the
convection zone.
Answer: Conveyor Belts

77) The corona can only be glimpsed from Earth during a(n) ________.
Answer: total solar eclipse

78) Compared to the underlying photosphere and chromosphere, the corona is ________ in temperature.
Answer: much hotter

79) The ________ blows out of the coronal holes.

Answer: solar wind

80) Sunspots are ________ poles in the photosphere.

Answer: magnetic

81) Flares and prominences are more numerous during ________.

Answer: sunspot maximum

82) During a period of high solar activity, most sunspots lie near the Sun's ________.
Answer: equator

83) The Maunder Minimum refers to a period of sustained solar ________ from 1645 until about 1715.
Answer: inactivity

84) The major product of the fusion of 4 protons in the Sun's core is a(n) ________ nucleus.
Answer: helium 4

85) Nuclear ________ explains the Sun's immense and sustained energy output.
Answer: fusion

86) Fusion depends upon the ________ nuclear force getting the protons to stick together.
Answer: strong

87) The gamma rays created in the Sun's core move freely through the ________ zone.
Answer: radiative

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 88) The only particle we can directly observe coming out of the Sun's core is the ________.
Answer: neutrino

89) The solar neutrino problem was solved when it was discovered that neutrinos ________ during the time they
take to reach the Earth.
Answer: oscillate or change into other types of neutrinos

90) At its current rate of consuming hydrogen, the Sun can stably shine for ________.
Answer: another five billion years

ESSAY. Write your answer in the space provided or on a separate sheet of paper.

91) What other solar system body has an average density similar to the Sun's? Why?
Answer: Like the Sun, Jupiter is made chiefly of hydrogen and helium.

92) Define the solar constant.

Answer: This is the amount of energy that the Earth receives per unit area per second.

93) What do sunspots tell us about the Sun's rotation rate?

Answer: Watching and timing sunspots as they travel across the Sun's face allows us to measure the rotation rate
and determine it does not rotate as a solid body. It experiences differential rotation with different rates
near the poles and equator.

94) How large are granules, and how long do they last?
Answer: These Texas-sized (1,000 km on average convective cells dissipate in about ten minutes after erupting in
the photosphere.

95) How is energy transfer from the solar interior to surface similar to a process in Earth's atmosphere?
Answer: The process of convection is responsible for energy transfer in both the Sun and Earth's atmosphere.

96) Why is the bright yellow disk of the Sun, the photosphere, cooler than the areas both above and below it?
Answer: The photosphere radiates light which carries away energy

97) What are the main constituents of the solar wind? Which travel faster?
Answer: The lower mass electrons move much faster than the protons that lag behind.

98) Why is it hard to observe the chromosphere?

Answer: Most of its energy is in the bright red emission line of hydrogen from its low density, so the denser
photosphere gives off a lot more light in the continuum.

99) Describe the temperature change in the transition zone.

Answer: The temperature rises rapidly from 5800 K to over a million degrees K.

100) Why are different spectral lines, such as helium, more visible in the corona than in the Sun's normal absorption
spectrum?
Answer: The corona is much hotter, and can ionize helium, which the photosphere is too cool to do.

101) Apply Wein's law to explain the corona's main energy release.
Answer: At millions of degrees, most of the corona's energy will be in short wave X-rays, not as visible light like
the cooler photosphere.

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102) What is the best time to see the corona? Why is it so faint, if it is so hot?
Answer: In a total solar eclipse, the faint corona is seen briefly. It is so hot that most of its energy is X-rays, not
light, and it is much less dense than the photosphere.

103) Two pairs of sunspots appear similar, but if one was observed in 1990, and the next in 2002, we would note
what difference?
Answer: In the 12 years, the magnetic field polarities will have reversed.

104) Are sunspots really dark and cool?

Answer: No, they are about 4,000 K, orange in color, but still cooler and darker than the bright yellow photosphere
that surrounds them.

105) The sunspot cycle is sometimes described as lasting 11 years, but others prefer to consider it as 22 years; explain
the rationale.
Answer: The numbers of sunspots come to a peak about every 11 years, but with the beginning of the next cycle,
the polarities of the spot pairs reverse, so it takes 22 years to go through the magnetic polarity cycle.

106) In Europe, what weather phenomenon coincided with the Maunder Minimum?
Answer: The "little ice age," with considerably cooler temperatures for 70 years.

107) Relate sunspots and prominences.

Answer: Sunspots are magnetic poles, but the field lines extend upward between the spots; hydrogen atoms
condense along these field lines and falls back toward the Sun, radiating red light as it cools off.

108) What are coronal holes?

Answer: Areas in the corona where the magnetic field lines open up to allow the solar wind to flow freely out into
space.

109) How might a coronal mass ejection affect Earth?

Answer: If the field lines of a coronal mass ejection are properly oriented, they can potentially disrupt Earth's
magnetosphere, causing widespread communications and power disruptions.

110) Why is ten million degrees critical to the proton-proton cycle?

Answer: At temperatures less than this, the protons repel each other before the strong nuclear force can fuse them
together to start the process the Sun shines by.

111) Both He3 and He4 are important in the proton-proton cycle. How are they different, and which comes first?
Answer: Helium 3 has two protons and one neutron, and two of them collide in the last step of the proton-cycle to
make helium 4 with two protons and two neutrons; they also release two extra protons.

112) What happens to most of the solar neutrinos between the Sun's core and Earth?
Answer: Two-thirds of them transform or oscillate into a different type of neutrino; similar oscillations have been
recently observed by Japanese physicists.

113) Name the four forces of the universe from weakest to strongest.
Answer: Gravitational, weak force, electromagnetic, and strong force.

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114) What happens in the radiative zone?
Answer: The gamma rays from the core can freely move through this hot, ionized layer which does not absorb this
form of radiation.

115) Describe evidence for convection in the photosphere.

Answer: The convective cells rise upward through the convective zone to erupt in the photosphere as the
granulation pattern, where the cells radiate away light and cool off and break up in just a few minutes.

116) If the corona is so hot, why do we have to wait for a total solar eclipse to see it?
Answer: It is so hot that almost all the energy it gives off, by Wien's Law, is not going to be in the visible, but the
X-ray portion of the spectrum. Also, it is very low density, so there are far more atoms at 5,800 K giving
off a lot of visible light than the few out in the corona.

117) Describe the changes in the Sun from beginning to end of a sunspot cycle.
Answer: The first spots appear at higher latitudes, 30-40 degrees above and below the equator. More spots
appear, typically closer to the equator until the numbers peak about six years into the cycle. The last spots
appear closer and closer to the equator, while the first spots of the next cycle, with reversed polarity now,
appear again at high latitudes.

118) A solar flare creates a radio disturbance on Earth a few minutes after going off, then again several days later.
Explain.
Answer: A flare will give off intense X-rays and ultraviolet light, which travels to Earth in about 8 minutes. But
also given off is an intense burst of high energy particles which travel to the Earth at speeds much less
than the speed of light. They can take several days to reach the Earth. Both forms of radiation create radio
disturbances when they reach the Earth.

119) Describe how the sun's rotation is responsible for observed polarities of sunspots.
Answer: The Sun's differential rotation wraps its magnetic field lines around the equator as it turns. The
north-south orientation of the field lines becomes oriented east-west. Convection further mixes the field
pattern, until the field lines are tangled and kinked like a garden hose. Occasionally, the field lines burst
out of the surface, forming a sunspot pair in the east-west direction.

120) How are sunspots in the northern and southern hemispheres different?
Answer: Sunspots always come in pairs, with one being a north pole and the other a south pole. One sunspot leads
the pair. All of the leading spots in the northern hemisphere will have the same polarity, and all the ones
in the southern hemisphere will have the opposite polarity. For example, if the leading sunspot in the
northern hemisphere is a north pole, then all the leading spots north of the equator will be a north pole,
and all the leading sunspots in the southern hemisphere will be a south pole.

121) What is meant by "neutrino oscillation"?

Answer: Japanese physicists found the neutrinos can change to a different type of neutrino in flight, and 2/3 of
them are doing so in the eight minutes from the Sun's core to Earth.

122) In the proton-proton cycle, two positrons are produced. What more familiar particles are they similar to, and
how do they differ?
Answer: Positrons are anti-electrons, made of antimatter, and with a positive charge instead of the negative
charge of normal electrons.

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123) What is happening to the mass of the Sun over time? Explain.
Answer: As 0.007 of the mass of the four protons does not end up as helium, but as energy which will then be
radiated out into space, the Sun is indeed losing some mass into space over time.

124) Without the strong nuclear force, the only element in the universe would be ________. Explain.
Answer: hydrogen. The strong force allows protons to fuse and create helium and heavier elements; without it, all
would be hydrogen.

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