The sun is the most perfect sphere in the entire visible universe Bashny.Net

Earth can not be called perfect sphere. Strictly speaking, the shape of our planet is an oblate spheroid, since the distance from the center of the earth to the sea level at the equator than the distance from the same point to any of the poles is greater than 20 kilometers. In addition, the surface of the Earth, as we know, it is not smooth.

But the Sun - is another story. Recently, it became clear that it is the most perfect natural object in the entire known universe. Previously, astronomers thought that during the 11-year cycle of solar activity, the form of light changes all the time something collapses, then expands. It turns out - nothing like that. Studies have shown that the shape of the Sun remains "essentially unchanged».

The scientists reasoned that rotating ball of gas, should be slightly flattened near the poles. This effect is clearly visible on the example of Jupiter at a sufficiently high speed (full rotation takes 10 hours), the distance from one point on its equator to the opposite almost 7% more than from pole to pole.

A team of scientists from the University of Hawaii led by Jeffrey Kuhn held the first accurate measurements of the solar equator bulges or, in other words, the extent of its "flattening". The results have led scientists to wonder. While the diameter of the Sun is 1, 4 million kilometers (or 109 Earth diameters), the difference between the distance from pole to pole and from the equator to its opposite point is only 10 kilometers away!

It's like as if a ball the size of a soccer ball was flattened to the thickness of a human hair. Only artificial silicon spheres made with greater precision.

via factroom.ru