SPACE.com: The inner workings of sunspots—those dark blotches that mark intense magnetic activity on the sun’s surface—have long been a mystery, but a new computer simulation is providing a more realistic look inside them.
Understanding the complex dynamics that drive sunspots could help scientists better understand and predict the potential impacts on communications systems and climate patterns of the geomagnetic storms produced by these solar blights."This is the first time we have a model of an entire sunspot,” said Matthias Rempel of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo. “If you want to understand all the drivers of Earth’s atmospheric system, you have to understand how sunspots emerge and evolve.”
The finding that the Saturnian moon may host layers of icy slush instead of a global ocean could change how planetary scientists think about other icy moons as well.
Modeling the shapes of tree branches, neurons, and blood vessels is a thorny problem, but researchers have just discovered that much of the math has already been done.
January 29, 2026 12:52 PM
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