This is a fresh perspective on the sun that considers its huge spherical size in relation to the finite speed of light. The sun is so extended that it takes light approximately 2.32 seconds to travel from the plane of...This is a fresh perspective on the sun that considers its huge spherical size in relation to the finite speed of light. The sun is so extended that it takes light approximately 2.32 seconds to travel from the plane of the solar limb to the plane tangential to the sun at the solar disc’s center. The aforementioned information is utilized in this study to support the new viewpoints. Firstly, it is shown that the solar disc is a simultaneous view of successively emitted coaxial spherical circles. Secondly, despite the fact that the sun is gaseous, it is thought to revolve completely as a rigid body at a fixed angular speed, yet an observer on Earth sees it rotate differentially. In a simple mathematical approach, it is found that the sun’s rotational speed apparently decreases with latitude. Thirdly, a qualitative examination of how we observe simultaneous whole-surface brightness changes of the sun and sunlike stars indicates that such changes would appear to spread out radially from the center of the solar disc.展开更多
文摘This is a fresh perspective on the sun that considers its huge spherical size in relation to the finite speed of light. The sun is so extended that it takes light approximately 2.32 seconds to travel from the plane of the solar limb to the plane tangential to the sun at the solar disc’s center. The aforementioned information is utilized in this study to support the new viewpoints. Firstly, it is shown that the solar disc is a simultaneous view of successively emitted coaxial spherical circles. Secondly, despite the fact that the sun is gaseous, it is thought to revolve completely as a rigid body at a fixed angular speed, yet an observer on Earth sees it rotate differentially. In a simple mathematical approach, it is found that the sun’s rotational speed apparently decreases with latitude. Thirdly, a qualitative examination of how we observe simultaneous whole-surface brightness changes of the sun and sunlike stars indicates that such changes would appear to spread out radially from the center of the solar disc.
