Yes, in a sense the sun "needs" its sunspots. Sunspots are regions at the solar surface where the magnetic field is very strong. The reason they look dark is that these regions are relatively cool compared to their surroundings. They are relatively cool because the way the Sun's material is heated depends on the strong magnetic field. IF they couldn't be cool, and so dark, the Sun would be out of balance -- so in that sense, it needs to have cool, dark sunspots to keep an equilibrium in the region of the strong magnetic fields. cheers, Sarah