[RascalPuff]

Originally Posted by MJA

Nice thread RP,

Rhyming is fun, but so are questions of the sun.

Questions: Does the sun spin on an axis, and if so, how fast?
What reference point on the sun would the measurer or scientist use?
If there was a planet nearer to the Sun than Earth, that traveled at the
same rotational speed as the Sun, how would one tell the difference between a planet and a Sun spot?

Thanks,
MJA

______________________________

Dear MJA:

Yes indeed, the sun does spin on an axis, though I don't know how fast (there's a research project).

The reference point would be the sunspot(s) itself (themselves).

If it's permanent, it may qualify as a planet, since the 'surface' of the sun is the light frontal of the first rays it emitted and the sunspot therefore would not be - per se - 'floating' on any 'surface', but rather, it is orbiting the sun and I speculate that the rotation of larger sunspots do not exactly correspond with the rotational - angular momentum - of the sun.

Though, once again, I'm only speculating about a rotational difference between the sun and some if not all of it's 'spots' - which are not really surficial, for the afore specified reason of the sun's actual surface being the frontal of the first rays it omnidirectionally emitted. Of course, to this speculation I'm not entirely committed...

RSVP

- RP