The Sun's Magnetic Field is about to Flip: every 11 years!

[Maria]

Watch this fascinating video: ScienceCasts: The Sun's Magnetic Field is about to Flip presented by NASA.

[Maria]

Here is an awesome picture of a solar eclipse in space.
Notice the active sun spots.

[arcmode]

I must correct you here my friend A sunspot is a region of lower activity on the Sun. Sunspots are cooler than the surrounding area and appear darker, that's why they are called 'spots.'

I think what you are pointing out are solar flares.

Here is an image of a Sunspot, with Earth to scale.

And another one of a massive flare with Earth to scale:

[Maria]

This news comes from http://www.spaceweather.com

Sunspot AR1813 has a beta-gamma magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares

So, do sunspots harbor energy for solar flares or is spaceweather.com wrong?

Anyway, when the solar magnetic field flips there should be a lot of solar filaments, solar flares, and CMEs.

[Dcn.Ephrem]

Sun spots are actually areas of increased magnetic activity. It's true that they get cooler, but this is only because the magnetic forces cause the plasma to behave strangely (since it is an ionized liquid), which reduces the effects of convection, the process that maintains the high temperatures of the solar surface. Most solar flares actually originate within sun spots.

The cool thing is that sun spots only appear dark relative to the surrounding plasma. If you isolated a sun spot, it would actually appear brighter than the full moon.

[arcmode]

Well, I don't really subscribe to the convection theory. I think the electric Sun model works better.

Have a look at this:

[arcmode]

This is a good site on the Electric Universe:

http://www.holoscience.com/wp/synopsis/