What do the Sun's waves look like?

Have a look at the picture below

This shows some data that I took using the SOHO satellite. It's a picture of ultraviolet light observed from the Sun, and basically you're seeing how the light from a thin layer of the Sun changes over an hour. Note the pattern in the image, like ripples in the sea. Each bright spot represents the crest of a wave.

Can you work out the period of the waves shown?

A clue: A wave always consists of some sort of up and down motion. The period is the time between two `ups' (or two `downs'!). Have a look at the picture to the right. We usually denote the period by a `T'.

In the picture the periods of the waves are all about 3 minutes. Note that the diameter of each small bright spot in the image is about 3500 kilometres!

As I have clearly found these regular bursts or variations in the light you might say that the work is finished, I have seen the waves so what more is there to do? Well we still have to understand all the processes causing these pulsations and that is the real challenge. Remember, that if you do something really impressive in science, you may get a wave named after you and maybe even win a Nobel prize!


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