Asterism: Maria Mitchell and Sunspots

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>> Jordan: Hi, I'm Jordan.
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>> Kit: And I'm Kit.
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>> Jordan: Welcome to Starry Time Asterisms Edition, where
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stars plus signs equals stories
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>> Ki: with an asterisk.
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>> Jordan: In these episodes, we get to explore ideas,
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concepts, or people that didn't make it into the
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main show. Or maybe just something we'd like to
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talk about a little bit more.
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>> Kit: In today's episode, we're going to be talking
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about Maria Mitchell and sunspots. As with most of
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our Asterism episodes, we're not going to get
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super detailed, but we will post more links and
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information about Maria Mitchell on our socials
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when this episode comes out. And that's
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starrytimepod on the Universeodon server of,
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Mastodon, which I'll post a link directly to in
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our show notes.
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>> Jordan: Maria Mitchell was born on August 1, 1818, in
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Nantucket, Massachusetts.
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>> Kit: Oh, we're almost birthday twins.
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>> Jordan: You're almost birthday twins. So close. So, so
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close. She was raised in a Quaker household, and
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she was quite close to her family throughout her
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life. Growing up on Nantucket, her father taught
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her how to rate chronometers for whaling ships.
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>> Kit: This reminds me that because we grew up in New
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England, our middle schools did a bunch of, like,
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whaling history lessons. Um, and talking to one of
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my friends and I was like, yeah, like, remember in
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middle school, like, we learned so much about
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whaling. We went to, like, a whaling town, and
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this person grew up in the Midwest, and they were
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like, um, that's just some New England bull-bleep
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Um, so, so I don't know people from New England,
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at least, at least in our school, we know an
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aggressive amount of whaling, uh, stuff. But I, I
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guess that's not normal.
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>> Jordan: I mean, it's surely a skill that's helped you
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throughout your life, correct?
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>> Kit: Not as much as it helped Maria, who learned how to
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use a number of these astronomical instruments
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because of where she grew up in the industry of
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whaling at that time,
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>> Jordan: Kit, I think that was our real problem. They
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taught us all the historical facts about whaling,
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but not how to use any of the cool tools. Then we
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could show off instead of just being like,
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scrimshaw, Herman Melville. Maria has a number of
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claims to fame, but the one that put her on the
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map was her discovery of a comet on October 1,
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1847. She became something of a celebrity. During
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this time, she was working as a librarian in
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Nantucket during the day, but she loved math and
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astronomy, and at night worked with her father to
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do calculations for the US Coast Survey. Again,
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more things we could have learned in our whaling
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lesson.
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>> Kit: The comet she observed was called Comet 1847 VI,
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but with Roman numerals. And it's now called C
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1847. It also, of course, has the name Ms.
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Mitchell's Comet. It was only observable with a
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telescope. And the reason why Maria was looking
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was because there was some kind of competition to
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identify comets not visible to the human eye. So
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there was some call for these, uh, comets to be
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identified. And so she published her findings of
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this comet under her father's name and also
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calculated the comet's orbit and was awarded a
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gold medal by the King of Denmark for this
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discovery.
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>> Jordan: I miss the days when you could get gold medals not
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just for athletic accomplishments, but for
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intellectual pursuits. I could work for a gold
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medal. That's a strong incentive. She was just the
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third woman to be recognized as discovering a
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comet after Caroline Herschel and Maria Magareth
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Kirsch. And we've already got a Caroline Herschel
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and Comets episode on the docket at some point in
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the future. I think that's coming soon, right?
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>> Kit: Yeah. Spoilers. Um, it's definitely on the docket
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for this season.
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>> Jordan: After she discovered this comet, Maria Mitchell
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was sort of vaulted into stardom. She became
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friends with a number of influential academics,
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suffragettes, and anti slavery advocates.
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>> Kit: Later in her life, she would go on to help found
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the Association for the Advancement of Women. And
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that was in 1973.
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>> Jordan: But before that, she was the first woman ever
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elected to the American Academy of Arts and
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Sciences. And in 1850, she and entomologist Maria
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Morris were the first women elected into the
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American Association for the Advancement of
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Science. So true pioneers.
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>> Kit: Mhm. So for a period of time, she worked tracking
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the motions of planets to aid sailors in
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navigation for the US Coast Survey, sort of
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building on that work she did with her father. But
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ultimately she ended up being the very first
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person appointed to the faculty at the newly
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founded Vassar College.
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>> Jordan: She was a professor of astronomy despite not
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having a college degree herself, and ran the
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Vassar College Observatory for more than 20 years.
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>> Kit: She was said to be a teacher that engaged her
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students in active learning and engaged them in
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field work. And in this capacity, she did research
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on a wide range of topics, from nebulae to binary
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stars to solar eclipses. And then what she started
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to do, which is another sort of claim to fame, was
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she began taking daily photographs of the sun and
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sunspots and was able to show that sunspots were
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not in fact, clouds on the sun as previously
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thought.
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>> Jordan: Truly a pioneering astronomer and
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astrophotographer.
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>> Kit: Yeah, she she was really prolific, and so she died
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in 1889. She now has an observatory named after
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her, um, on Nantucket, and it's run by the Maria
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Mitchell Association. She also has a crater named
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after her on the Moon. And she's sometimes
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colloquially known as America's first woman
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astronomer. And as I mentioned, I'll post over on
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our socials for anyone who want to learn more
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about her and her work.
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>> Jordan: So Maria Mitchell had a lot of achievements, but
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let's talk a little bit more about sunspots, Kit.
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>> Kit: In our episode on the science and folklore of
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aurora, we talked about how solar activity causes
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aurora. But solar flares and coronal mass
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ejections are also linked to sunspots, since these
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areas tend to be the areas of the sun that are
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very active.
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>> Jordan: When you see images of the sun, you can sometimes
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see spots that are darker than the surrounding
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area. And sunspots are comprised of this dark
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area, which is called an umbra, and a slightly
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lighter but still darker than the rest of the
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surface, called the penumbra. These areas appear
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darker because they're actually cooler than the
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surrounding material.
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>> Kit: The photosphere of the sun, which is one of the
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outer layers where sunspots appear, is about
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10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, while an average umbra,
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that sort of darker spot, is closer to around
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6,300 degrees Fahrenheit.
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>> Jordan: Oh, ice station cool. A nice chilly 6,000 degrees.
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Though, to be fair, the inner parts of the sun,
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like the convective zone, they can be around 3.6
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million degrees. Suddenly, this 6,000 degrees is
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sounding like a nice ice bath. And as for the core
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of the sun itself, yeah, now we're talking 27
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million degrees. 6,000 degrees is going to start
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feeling like absolute zero. Hot.
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>> Kit: Very, very hot. Hot, hot, hot. And yet the sun is
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actually kind of in the middle of the pack in
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terms of temperature as a yellow main sequence
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star, as we've discussed before on the pod.
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>> Jordan: So, yeah, if 27 million degrees at the Sun's core
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isn't hot enough for you, you know, there are
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other suns out there. But these cooler, relatively
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speaking, regions of the sun are caused by the
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magnetic fields around the Sun. Like all stars,
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the sun is primarily made up of flowing, moving
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plasma, which creates magnetic fields. This system
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or process, which is driven by the heat of nuclear
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fusion, is known as solar dynamo.
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>> Kit: Solar dynamo would be a great, great band name.
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>> Jordan: Great marvel superhero name. Yeah, Sidekick. Solar
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dynamo. Come through.
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>> Kit: Yeah, they should have just called the Human Torch
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Solar Dynamo. That's my take. Anyway, as the sun's
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magnetic field is shifting and flowing. Sometimes
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the fields get tangled or snarled, as I saw it
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described on a NASA website. Tangled and snarled
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magnetic fields. And what happens when they get
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tangled is that there's an increase in magnetic
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pressure and a decrease in atmosphere pressure,
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which then drops the temperature of the area.
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>> Jordan: And that's where we get those dark spots which
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kind of look tiny, but can be anywhere from 10
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miles to 100,000 miles across. Most of them are
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between about 1,000 and 100,000 miles across.
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>> Kit: Yeah. So some of those little spots that you see
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when you see astrophotography of the sun could be
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larger across than the entire Earth.
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>> Jordan: Sunspots can last days to month. And the number of
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sunspots cycles on an 11 year basis, with some
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periods in this time having more or fewer spots.
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>> Kit: NASA tracks and reports on sunspot activities, and
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they do so in part because these sunspots are
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associated with space weather.
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>> Jordan: Right. And like we discussed in our aurora
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episode, these conditions in space of course
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impact things that we use here on Earth. Gps,
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power grids, radio, satellite communication.
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>> Kit: Of course, we also need to know when those aurora
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borealis and aurora australis are on their way as
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well.
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>> Jordan: That's the most important thing to me personally.
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Yes. When do I get to see the cool stuff? And to
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learn more about those. The cool stuff, as I
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called it, check out our back catalog.
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Thank you all for joining us today on our asterism
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about Maria Mitchell and sunspots.
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>> Kit: This has been Kit
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>> Jordan: and Jordan.
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>> Kit: Sisters who love stars and stories.
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>> Jordan: And we'll see you next time
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>> Kit: on Starry Time