![]() ![]() NASA Science suggests (opens in new tab) that an exploding star caused this to collapse forming a solar nebula.Īt the center of this nebula, our sun formed incorporating 99 percent of the available matter with the outer dust clumps forming the planets. The sun's counterclockwise rotation and the counterclockwise rotation of the entire solar system (except two planets) is a result of its formation around 4.5 billion years ago.Īt this point in the universe's history, the solar system was no more than a giant rotating disc of gas and dust. The ice giants Uranus and Neptune also have differential rotation - all spinning faster at their equators than they do at the poles. This is not surprising given their gaseous composition. The gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, also experience differential rotation. This type of rotation isn't unique to the sun or even to stellar bodies. This has led to solar scientists intensely studying the effects that arise as a result of different rotation rates throughout our star. The layers of the sun's interior also rotate at different speeds with inner regions actually rotating more like the solid bodies of the inner solar system.Īstronomers estimate that the core of the sun actually rotates as rapidly as once a week, four times faster than its surface and intermediate layers, according to NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) page (opens in new tab). ![]() (Image credit: ANDRZEJ WOJCICKI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images.)ĭifferences in rotation rates on our star aren't isolated to its surface, however. The sun (right) is orbited by the planets of the solar system. ![]() "The source of this 'differential rotation' is an area of current research in solar astronomy." "Since the sun is a ball of gas/plasma, it does not have to rotate rigidly like the solid planets and moons do," according to (opens in new tab) NASA. This means that its rotation proceeds at different rates depending on where you look at the star. The sun experiences something called differential rotation. That means that the way it rotates is different than the way our planet, Mars, Venus, and Mercury do. While Earth and the other inner planets are composed of solid rock, the sun is an ultra-hot ball of dense ionized gas - mainly hydrogen and helium - called plasma. Primarily, how different it is from the rotation of our planet. To this day, astronomers and solar scientists use sunspots and other features on the surface of our star to measure its rotation. Yet, there is more to learn about the sun's rotation. By using sunspots, he had discovered that the sun rotates, pleasingly ironic given these dark cool patches on the surface of the sun are an artifact of that rotation. ![]()
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