How much of a star can be covered in starspots?
Many stars, including the Sun, periodically display starspots, cooler areas of the surface associated with higher local concentrations of the stellar magnetic field. They can sometimes be a couple thousand Kelvin cooler than the surrounding regions of the stellar photosphere. My reasoning is that because surface flux from a star is proportional to
The thing is, I don't know just how dramatic the effect could be. I can't say that I know much about starspots, and while Wikipedia claims that up to 30% of the surface of a star can be covered,
- The claim is not backed up by a citation.
- It's not clear if that's the theoretical limit or just the maximum value found in observations.
- Wikipedia doesn't say in what type of stars this dramatic coverage is seen.
- Another site claims a limit of at least 66%.
Therefore, what is the upper limit for the amount of a star's surface that can be covered by starspots at a given time? I'm hoping for main sequence stars of between
As a note, when I say "starspot", I'm looking for a region roughly
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