Sunspots

The sun is our nearest star at 93 million miles away and its amazing that you can photograph it at such a  distance. As we move to Solar Max the number of sunspots increase and it is these field that are highly magnetic that produce solar flares. These flares shoot out highly charged particles and if earth directed they hit out magnetic poles are pulled down and produce Auroras.

Sunspots can appear and disappear in a few hours but some survive and last a day, week , month or longer and continue to produce flares
 

More sunspots, the more active the sun is becoming. At solar minimum there are often no sunspots.

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