The Sun's Rotation

The period of the sun is about 30 days near the equator and about 25 days near the poles. How can that be?

Differential Rotation
The sun doesn't have a 'surface' like the Earth or Mars. It is gaseous like Jupiter or Saturn, and it rotates faster at the equator than it does at its poles. For this reason, the sun is called a differential rotator.

The rotation of the sun causes, in part, a general, global, dipole moment which is aligned with the axis of rotation and has a strength of about five times the Earth's. The knowledge we gain from the sun is used to further our understanding of distant stars which are more difficult to observe.

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