The photosphere is the layer of a stellar atmosphere that emits the continuous radiation carrying most of the star's luminous energy (Plate 1). The effective temperatures of stellar photospheres range between about 50 000 K for massive young supergiants to below 2000 K for cool dwarf stars.
The photosphere of the Sun is the best studied, but with increased development of powerful techniques (interferometry, Doppler imaging), the photospheres of certain other particular stars are becoming known: for instance, spots have been detected on young stars such as T Tauri (Joncour, 1992). The outer limit of the solar photosphere is taken to be the boundary of the visible solar disk as seen in white light.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, the Sun's surface was assumed to be a hot liquid. From sunspot behavior Abbot, C.G. C.G. Abbot (1900)postulated that it was gaseous, and now it is recognized as a plasma. The visible surface of the Sun is the outer limit of the photosphere, where the...
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Rozelot, J.P. (1997). Solar photosphere . In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Science. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4520-4_379
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