☀️ Bright outer layer 📸 A panoramic photo

photosphere

3 9.6

Bright outer layer of a star, like the sun, that gives most visible light

noun
/ˈfoʊtəˌsfɪr/

Specialized

: fotosfera

The sun's surface layer, known as the photosphere, emits the bright light that we see during the day.
solar photosphere
the photosphere of the sun
the photosphere of a star

And the point at which it suddenly can move freely is is this point the photosphere.

Examples

Beneath the photosphere is the solar interior.

Academic text (1991)
Yet the Sun's "surface," the photosphere, radiates mostly visible light.

Academic text (2001)
The visible "surface" of the Sun is called the photosphere.

Academic text (2004)
Outside the path, over a much larger area of Earth, the Moon only blocks the view of part of the photosphere.

Academic text (2000)
Sunspots appear dark because they are giving off less radiation than the photosphere that surrounds them.

Academic text (1991)
There and only there, for a few precious minutes, does the Moon completely block the solar photosphere, the surface layer of gases from which most of the Sun's light escapes.

Academic text (2000)
By the time hot solar gas reaches the photosphere ("sphere of light" in Greek), it has a temperature of about 5800 kelvins.

Academic text (2001)
A solar storm involves energetic particles released from the photosphere, impacting satellites in orbit.
Astronomers study the photosphere to understand the sun's activity and its effects on Earth.

Surface Forms

photosphere singular

photospheres plural

Morphology

photosphere = sphere (semi-transparent) = photo + sphere

The word is built from the combining form photo- and sphere, but the astronomical sense is specialized and not fully predictable for a typical learner.

Etymology

Photosphere comes from photo- 'light' (as in photograph) and sphere 'ball' or 'globe'. So the sun's photosphere is the bright 'light ball' layer we see that gives off most of its visible light.