facula

American  

[fak-yuh-luh] / ˈfæk jə lə /

noun

Astronomy.

faculae plural

1. an irregular, unusually bright patch on the sun's surface.

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facula British  

/ ˈfækjʊlə /

noun

1. any of the bright areas on the sun's surface, usually appearing just before a sunspot and subject to the same 11-year cycle

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facula Scientific  

/ făk′yə-lə /

faculae plural

1. A bright, cloudlike structure on the Sun's surface, ascending several hundred kilometers above the photosphere and often associated with sunspots. Faculae are formed when a strong magnetic field heats a region of the photosphere to higher temperatures than the surrounding area. They occur all over the Sun but are usually only visible near the limb (the outer edge of the Sun's apparent disk), where the photosphere appears dimmer than in the center.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• facular
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• faculae
  plural

Etymology

Origin of facula

1700–10; < Latin: little torch, equivalent to fac- (stem of fax ) torch + -ula -ule

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

facula faculae

He considers it indeed "highly probable that the preparatory sign of a new spot is always a small, bright patch of facula."

From A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century Fourth Edition by Clerke, Agnes M. (Agnes Mary)

Stellar contamination refers to the influence of the star's own features, such as dark spots and bright faculae, on the measurements of the exoplanet's atmosphere.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 25, 2023

"In addition to the contamination from stellar spots and faculae, we saw a stellar flare, an unpredictable event during which the star looks brighter for several minutes or hours," said Lim.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 25, 2023

What’s more, detailed observations from orbiting solar telescopes have shown that the small faculae pump out more energy per unit surface area than the larger ones already known to disappear along with the sunspots.

From Science Magazine ● May 26, 2011

But the absence of other signs of magnetic activity, such as bright patches of very hot gas known as faculae more than compensates for this effect.

From Science Magazine ● May 26, 2011

The faculae, or bright areas, which are seen all over the sun’s surface, but specially in the neighbourhood of spots, and most distinctly near the sun’s edge, were discovered by Galileo.

From History of Astronomy by Forbes, George