Click on the image above for a larger version of the .gif file.
This cartoon shows two stars in a close binary system, viewed pole-on, which share magnetic field lines from their magnetospheres. This is a model RS CVn system; the name includes a contraction of the Latin genitive plural of "Venetian Dogs," the spelling-out of which is beyond the average astronomer. Hence RS CVn, pronounced "RS can ven".
It is going very far afield to show a cartoon from an RS CVn binary star system in a collection of solar cartoons. However I have always felt that this illustrated an important point: clearly the magnetic reconnection implied by this cartoon can have a substantial real-time driver, namely the orbital motions of the (massive) stars to which the fields are rooted. We don't have this luxury on the Sun.
November 2, 2006