ENIGMA OF SUNSPOTS: A Story Of Discovery & Scientific Revolution

Sunspots, the strange and elusive dark shapes that periodically sweep across the Sun's surface, have mystified people for centuries. Given their elusive cyclical nature and the fact that it is both painful and dangerous to observe the Sun directly, it is little wonder that records of sunspots are almost nonexistent in Europe before the seventeenth century. Today these solar emissions are thought to coincide with major effects in global weather patterns. It may be that this powerful phenomena holds a key to our understanding of the nature of the Sun. In The Enigma of Sunspots, Judit Brody tells the fascinating story of our efforts to understand sunspots, beginning with the lives -- and quarrels -- of those who first charted their mysterious patterns of behavior.