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A TRACE image of sunspots. This image of the surface, or photosphere, of the sun from September 2002, is taken in the far ultraviolet in on a relatively quite day for solar activity, but still shows a large sunspot group visible as a bright area near the horizon. Although sunspots are relatively cool regions on the surface of the sun, the bright glowing gas flowing around the sunspots have a temperature of over one million °C (1.8 million °F). The high temperatures are thought to be related to the rapidly changing magnetic field loops that channel solar plasma. Photo credit: NASA/TRACE |