Question

How long does it take for the sun to rotate on its axis?

Answer 1

Hint: The sun is popularly known as a star or a huge ball of spinning gas composed primarily of two gases namely hydrogen and helium and it is roughly around 5 billion years old. It is important to us because it is the most massive and influential member of the solar system.

Complete answer:
The gaseous sun is divided into different zones and layers to which the regions of our host star move at varying speed. The sun spins on its own axis but moves at a much slower pace than the Earth. Different parts of the sun take different lengths of time to complete one turn. The equatorial regions move the fastest, taking about 25 days to complete a turn. The polar regions on the other hand, take 35 days to complete a turn.

The visible surface or the photosphere is in constant motion with the number and the position of sunspots changing in a regular solar cycle. The external phenomena includes magnetic activity which extends into the chromospheres and corona, the solar flares, solar prominences and the solar wind.
Since the sun is a hot sphere of gas, it does not rotate rigidly like that of the solid planets and the moons. Similarly, like the earth’s rotation which takes 24 hours to complete a full rotation, the sun which isn’t a solid object like a planet may find it hard to pinpoint.

Note:The sun is also known as a yellow dwarf star. It rotates in the opposite direction of the Earth such as from west to east instead of east to west like the earth. It also rotates more quickly in the equator than at the poles and this is known as differential rotation.