Friday 31 August 2012

ar11560 ar11561 31st August

ar11560 ar11561 by Mark Townley
ar11560 ar11561, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Sunspots are basically (generally) giant dipole magnets, and these 2 active regions are no exception. Ribbons of plasma can be seen flowing around the sunspots like iron filing around magnets in a physics experiment!