back to article Sun's core in a real spin, but you wouldn't know just by looking at it

Our Sun's core is rotating four times faster than its surface. That's the conclusion boffins have reached after peering at data from the joint NASA-ESA SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) mission, first launched in 1995 and still turning in the science. What SOHO found is something solar scientists have been trying to …

  1. herman

    I wonder whether the sun is also bigger on the inside.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Facepalm

      It's a ball of gas... not a TARDIS...

      1. Rich 11

        It's a ball of plasma, mostly, not a ball of gas.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Joke

          Well... at least it's not a ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff...

    2. Swarthy

      It is certainly older on the inside.

      1. the spectacularly refined chap

        Younger. Time travels more slowly the further down a gravity well.

        1. Swarthy
          Facepalm

          Crap! You're right.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Denser.... Denser on the inside =P

  2. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    I'd seen the term in relation to the Earth's weather.

    Where you can view the atmosphere as composed of great "mountains" of air forming over individual local peaks in the local gravitational field.

    Excellent work, which should refine the models of star formation, and our stars long term stability.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Trollface

      Re: I'd seen the term in relation to the Earth's weather.

      "our stars long term stability"? I thought we were due another Carrington event next wednesday!

    2. jake Silver badge

      Re: I'd seen the term in relation to the Earth's weather.

      Could see it this evening just East of the Golden Gate Bridge ... The inversion layer was lifted over Angel Island, you could see a "bump" in the fog over the island when flying overhead. (The sea fog was only a couple hundred feet thick near sunset.)

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    All I'll say is that it's a good job it revolves around us and not the other way around.

    1. Anonymous Coward Silver badge
      Joke

      It's also good that it's powered by a renewable energy source - can you imagine what the activists would do if it were to be nuclear powered???

    2. JimmyPage Silver badge
      Boffin

      (obligatory quote)

      But imagine how it would look ...

  4. Tom 7

    Nice to have some extra data

    but its been known the inside went faster than the outside for a while - https://www.newscientist.com/article/2120202-suns-rotation-is-slowed-down-by-its-own-photons/

    1. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: Nice to have some extra data

      "Its been known the inside went faster than the outside for a while"

      Strongly suspected. Something had to be tying the magnetic field up in knots.

  5. DropBear
    Joke

    Oh, it turns that slowly? Dang! I always thought it spins with exactly one revolution per day, which is why we have night-time, when the Sun's dark side is facing us. Oh well, back to the drawing board...

  6. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
    Happy

    So this guy has spent 8 1/2 years playing GOLF on the Cote d'Azur - and gets paid for it! I'm in the wrong job, obviously.

  7. Mike 16

    Misleading?

    I came here for another Oracle rant.

  8. JohnBoyNC

    G-waves?

    " the “g-waves” don't leave a visible signature."

    Which probably explains why that illusive "G-Spot" has been so hard to find.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    'nearly-undetectable ripples in reality'

    So gravitational waves will not be generated by Donald Trump then.

  10. DagD

    "gravitational waves are the nearly-undetectable ripples in reality"

    Wouldn't Facebook qualify as a "gravitational wave"?

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like