facula

[fak-yuh-luh]

noun

Astronomy.

plural

faculae 

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

facula

/ 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

facula

plural

faculae 

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.

Other Word Forms

• facular adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of facula¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of facula¹

C18: from Latin: little torch, from fax torch

Example Sentences

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.

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All of the new monikers contain “facula,” which means “bright spot,” because they are brighter than the background terrain, as well as the word “snake” in one of Earth’s various languages.

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Even during a prolonged minimum, they claim, an extensive network of very small faculae on the sun’s hot surface remains to keep the energy output above a certain threshold level.

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These markings are known as the faculae, from their brightness.

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

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