Fig. 2 Typical sunspot
In 2009 a long article was posted on this site explaining that sunspots are created by the impacts of huge bodies, of the same composition as the main belt asteroids, ejected from Jupiter over the last six millennia. Among the data which confirm this hypothesis: (a) the period of sunspot cycles which agree with Jupiter’s orbital period; (b) spectra of large amounts of water are found within, and only within, the sunspots; (c) the temperature within the sunspots is thousands of degrees less than the normal photosphere temperature; (d) the material within the sunspots is moving downward into the Sun at some 3,000 mph; (e) sunspots are ‘associated’ with Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs). These are just a few of the measurements, all of which lead to the obvious conclusion suggested in the Cyclic Catastrophism scenario. Toward the end of that article a still photo from a NASA video clip imaged by the TRACE probe was posted, showing what NASA termed ‘Solar Tadpoles’. Due to the magic of YouTube, it is now possible to include the entire video clip (20 seconds) showing the sequence of events which result from such an impact on the surface of the Sun.
Video Sequence
Initially the scene is relatively dark but then lights up as the largest chunk of the incoming body (unseen because of darkness) penetrates the atmopshere and strikes the surface of the Sun first. Smaller pieces which have been abraded by the solar atmosphere are more retarded, and consequently arrive seconds later. Because the impact of the primary body has lit up the scene it is possible to see the smaller fragments being burned up, creating the wiggling tadpoles, as they approach the surface. The primary impact splashes a vast amount of material off the Sun’s surface, as would be expected, but because the impacting body is magnitized, its magnetic field comes into play and the splashed ionized material is entrained in the magnetic field lines, causing the loops. Figure 2 shows a typical sunspot which illustrates the secondary spots due to the smaller abraded pieces which get through to the surface. Believe it or not, the scientific ‘establishment’ has not successfully explained the events shown in that video made 11 years ago, in spite of launching nine different probes to study the Sun. This illustrates their stubborn adherence to the Uniformitarian paradigm that no ‘catastrophic’ events have occurred in the solar system in the last few billion years. More simply, they have never been able to understand the simple fact that the video shows a huge impact creating a sunspot. The deep-seated reason for this blindness to reason is that they cannot imagine the existence of the vast numbers of large bodies ejected from Jupiter that would explain the thousands of sunspots which have been observed in the last few hundred years. This is only explained by Cyclic Catastrophism.
Establishment Explanation
The establishment ‘explanations’ are convoluted, hand waving efforts attempting to describe both sunspots and the tadpoles as originating within the Sun and somehow propagated upward by magnetic fields. “The new view inside sunspots, provided by instruments onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), shows a previously unseen process. The Michaelson Doppler Interferometer shows plasma in sunspots zooming toward the center of the Sun at 3,000 mph, creating a siphon of sorts that reins in the magnetic fields.” Members of the research team offered the following hypotheses:
Fig. 3 Solar Photosphere diving into sunspot.
“Magnetic fields in sunspots are known to prevent the heat that’s generated deep within the Sun from rising to the surface. So the plasma in a sunspot is cooler than plasma on the surrounding surface of the Sun. Since the sunspot plasma is cooler, it is heavier, and it plunges downward. That draws the surrounding plasma and magnetic field inward toward the sunspot’s center … The concentrated field promotes further cooling and sinking flow and draws in still more material. This sets up a self-maintaining cycle of material circulation.”
More recently additional evidence has been provided by the Transition Region And Coronal Explorer (TRACE) spacecraft. It is in the form of a video clip showing several waving shadows approaching the Sun after the eruption of a Coronal Mass Expulsion (CME) event. Quoting Edward Deluca of the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and co-author of an upcoming Astrophysical Journal report on TRACE’s observations:
“… other instruments have previously spotted the curious, dark globules, which were first noticed in January 1999. After the initial discovery, researchers scrutinized old data, finding about 40 other events dating back to 1991. But TRACE’s detection of the tadpoles marks the first ever for a high-resolution satellite. This is the best view yet of these enigmatic shapes, TRACE’s close-up ultraviolet view of the tadpoles occurred on April 21, 2002, during a coronal mass ejection (CME). Tadpoles have been seen in association with about 20 percent of CMEs. “
The tadpole feature has perplexed astronomers, because such gigantic explosions should be propelling material outward, yet these black blobs are retreating toward the sun at up to 400 miles a second. But the TRACE data, which observes in ultraviolet light at 1.5 million and 10 million degrees Celsius, have helped scientists unravel the mystery behind these formerly enigmatic features..
The outer layer of the Sun, made of electrified gas, or plasma, is constantly in motion, like a pot of boiling water. The electricity in this plasma generates magnetic fields, which twist and turn and stretch and strain as the plasma rolls around. Scientists think that given enough stress, the magnetic fields in this outer atmosphere (corona) break apart, causing a solar flare and/or a coronal mass ejection. Broken fields attached to the solar surface reconnect and tadpoles result. The rejoined fields snap back to the solar surface, leaving a magnetized void in the plasma, the tadpole. In an article titled “Swimming to the Sun — Solar Tadpoles Might Shed Light on Sun’s Activity” Dr. David McKenzie states “Imagine a hot-air balloon lifting off the ground and stretching elastic tethers placed over its top, the tethers are like the solar magnetic field, and the balloon represents the CME. As the balloon rises, the elastic tethers stretch, get pulled together, and start to tangle underneath the balloon. If the tethers were to behave like solar magnetic fields, instead of simply breaking, broken tethers would reconnect to other broken tethers, forming new connections (magnetic reconnection). If this tangling and reconnection goes on long enough, pieces of elastic tethers that are connected to the ground (the solar surface) connect to other “grounded” segments, and subsequently snap back down to the ground. They carry the magnetic voids (tadpoles) down with them, and form long rows of arches called arcades. Pieces connected to the balloon get tied to other ‘balloon-connected’ segments and are carried off as magnetic fields embedded in the CME.”
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.” Albert Einstein
