sun’s core rotates nearly 4X faster than the sun’s surface tagged posts

The sun is emitting plumes of hydrogen plasma. The white areas are where the sun’s magnetic field is especially strong. Credit: SoHO, a joint project of the European Space Agency and NASA

Surprising observation might reveal what the sun was like when it formed. The sun’s core rotates nearly 4X faster than the sun’s surface, according to new findings by an international team of astronomers. Scientists had assumed the core was rotating like a merry-go-round at about the same speed as the surface. “The most likely explanation is that this core rotation is left over from the period when the sun formed, some 4.6 billion years ago,” said Roger Ulrich, a UCLA professor emeritus of astronomy, who has studied the sun’s interior for more than 40 years...