Other Suns got the right spin
Tuesday, May 17, 2016 - 08:51
in Astronomy & Space
Astrophysicists have for the first time measured the rotation periods of stars in a cluster nearly as old as the Sun and found them to be similar. It turns out that these stars spin around once in about twenty-six days -- just like our Sun. This discovery significantly strengthens what is known as the solar-stellar connection, a fundamental principle that guides much of modern solar and stellar astrophysics. This principle -- that the Sun is a star -- was only proved in the 19th century when distances to the nearest stars were measured.