Starspots: signatures of stellar magnetic activity

Abstract

AbstractStarspots, just as Sunspots, are among the most obvious tracers and signatures of stellar surface magnetic activity. Emphasized already several decades ago as the origin for the rotationally modulated brightness of cool late-type stars, it is just now that we start to trace individual surface features in great enough detail to understand their magnetic behavior and interaction. Starspots also became the most important “noise” for detecting extra-solar planets and could possibly be decisive when it comes to detect another Earth. Since this is not a review, and because indirect imaging techniques are covered in other papers in this volume, I focus in this paper on some specific detections of starspots and introduce four new facilities particularly suited for starspot research in the near future.