The Sun is Flatter than the Earth, and Rounder
As it turns out we were wrong about the Sun after all. Decades of research and data pointed to the theory that the Sun’s shape is variable, changing with it’s cycles, being as “malleable as a sturdy stress ball”. Jeffrey Kuhn and his team at the University of Hawaii in Pukalani have discovered that this previous theory is totally wrong, “in fact, is that the Sun’s shape doesn’t vary at all. It’s rounder than we thought, sure, and flatter—if you can reconcile those two in your brain—but it’s also terrifically consistent. “
Kuhn goes on to explain:
“The peculiar fact that the sun is slightly too round to agree with our understanding of its rotation is also an important clue in a longstanding mystery,” Kuhn said. “The fact that it is too round means that there are other forces at work making this round shape. We’ve probably misunderstood how the gas turbulence in the sun works, or how the sun organizes the magnetism that we can only see at the surface. Finding problems in our theories is always more exciting than not, since this is the only way we learn more.”
The timing on this discovery is really neat. With the recent Mars landing we’re all paying attention to NASA and “space is cool” is happening again outside of sci-fi. This discovery was made possible by using more accurate measurements from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory located… you guessed it… in space. All it took was a little change of perspective to learn more about the universe around us. New discoveries about how the Sun functions will allow researchers to learn more about how it affects us on Earth.
Science is cool folks. Imagine what we will learn next from the Curiosity Rover on Mars?
So what’s more mind blowing, the flat-round Sun, or are we still wrapping our heads around Pluto’s downgraded status to dwarf-planet?
(Source: Gizmodo via SPACE, Image Credit: NASA)
