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Magnetic field lines like this?

Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 07:59:19 -0500 (EST)
From: "Donald E. Simanek" <dsimanek@eagle.lhup.edu>
Subject: Re: Comments: txtbk misconceptions

... And if we "cut" field lines, do the cut ends just dangle and do
they snap due to their elasticity?

That reminds me something I was going to ask. An astronomy textbook shows
a diagram of magnetic field lines EMERGING from our SUN and spirling out
to infinity. I interpret this as a statement that our solar system is a
magnetic monopole. The author does not say this but how else can the
diagram be interpreted? Am I reading it wrongly or are we facing another
textbook misconception? Those who teach astronomy will know, I hope.

P.S. The purpose of this picrure is to "explain" how the angular momentum
can be removed from Sun by its solar wind (dragged ionized material). I
would think that the magnetic field lines of solar wind streams are loops
perpendicular to local velocities of escaping protons. Is there another
meaning of the term "magnetic field line" in plasma physics, or in astronomy?

Does Sun become a store-house of negative charges? Hey, we found a capacitor
holding a net non-zero charge! The C of a single sphere can be calculated
from from a textbook formula. I know I am mixing two topics. I am half-joking
about electric field lines but I am serious about magnetic.
Ludwik Kowalski