Magnetism

So there you were looking at the sun (through a dark lens of course) and wondering why it was so smooth. Lack of magnetism is the short answer.

Usually a shot of the sun like the one above will reveal the presence of sunspots.

Sunspots are great pools of magnetism that appear when magnetic force-fields generated by the sun's inner dynamo magnets poke through the surface. These fields block the flow of heat from below, cooling the sun in their vicinity which makes it look dark compared to the surrounding inferno.

Sunspots are in a state of non-stop upheaval. Tangled lines of magnetism twist and stretch until the tension becomes too great and a solar flare explodes. This link between flares and spots is why solar minimum is so quiet.

Sunspots come and go in an 11-year rhythm called the sunspot cycle. At the cycle's peak, solar maximum, the sun is continually peppered with spots, some as big as the planet Jupiter.

But during solar minimum months can go by without a single sunspot.

We're now at the beginning of the minimum. February 2006 was the first month in almost ten years with mostly no sunspots. For 21 of February's 28 days, the sun was blank. This situation is expected to continue for the rest of 2006.