Solar rotation. Cutaway artwork of the Sun,showing how the rotation rate of the Sun varies with depth and position,based on data from the Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite. The image is colour-coded to represent rotation speed,from red (fastest),through orange,yellow,green,and light blue,to dark blue (slowest). The material at the solar equator is moving about 4800 kilometres (km) per hour faster than that at the poles. The flow of hot,electrically-charged gas (plasma) under the equator is about 480,000 km wide & 208,000 km deep. Smaller streams of plasma (light blue) exist at the poles. Data taken by SOHO's Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) instrument |