Posted on 12/21/2016 7:12:28 PM PST by MtnClimber
Sunbeams—what a drag. That’s the conclusion of physicists trying to solve a longstanding mystery: why the sun’s surface rotates more slowly than its inner core. The team argues that energy radiating outward from the sun pushes back slightly as it is expelled, providing just enough resistance to put on the brakes. The hypothesis is supported by a new observation: that the thin “skin” of the sun rotates more slowly than layers just beneath.
“I really can’t believe nobody has thought of this,” says Hugh Hudson, a solar physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the research. “This is a straightforward, simple mechanism nobody noticed before, and it seems to explain a phenomenon no one was able to explain.”
Scientists have known for decades that the sun spins less like a baseball than a soft-boiled egg; it rotates about 5% slower in its outer layer than it does deep inside, creating a shearing motion where the speed changes. But they didn’t know why. The breaking hypothesis is a novel idea that has not been applied to the sun before, says Jeff Kuhn, a physicist at the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy in Honolulu and lead author on the paper. The premise draws on fundamental ideas like Albert Einstein’s special relativity, which states that photons of light carry momentum, and Isaac Newton’s third law, which stipulates a reaction for every action.
A 5% difference in rotation. I wonder how they can measure the rotation of the interior?
Well Mr. Hudson, you’re absolutely brilliant. Give it a few years until someone comes up with a better theory to supplant yours, your brilliance.
It must be caused by global warming.
They can’t.
But they think they can.
Just like parallax.
Doesn’t work at the astronomical distances they claim.
But they think it does.
“I wonder how they can measure the rotation of the interior?”
It’s the same monitoring system they use here on Earth to watch man made global warming. It’s really very accurate. I read where the UN will mandate a sun ray tax to offset the difference.
The core has a different temperature than the surface. Even the temperature can vary, so they probably have taken thousands of measurements to measure the speed.
Solar Warming from Human Activity.
Time to setup a Sun Carbon Credits exchange.
"Features revealed by helioseismology include that the outer convective zone and the inner radiative zone rotate at different speeds, which is thought to generate the main magnetic field of the Sun by a dynamo effect, and that the convective zone has "jet streams" of plasma (more precisely, torsional oscillations) thousands of kilometers below the surface."
Have you seen those measurements?
...Time to setup a Sun Carbon Credits exchange....
Is Al Gore secretly posting here?
I wonder if sunspots could be from the interior and rotate at different speeds from the surface? It seems IR from the interior would be absorbed by layers above. Possibly you could do horizon shots and see different IR levels against altitude and look at red shift to get velocity. Article does not give enough detail.
I had PSSC physics in HS, and saw the PSSC films, one of which was exclusively devoted to the radiometer, and the hypothesis that it’s rotation was caused by “photons bouncing off the blades” like pellets.
An analysis was given indicating that the white, reflecting side should recieve more force ( because the pellets bounce off ) than the dark, absorbing side. I well remember Jerrold Zacharias pointing at the spinning vanes and saying, “... so it should spin this way” pointing in the opposite direction to the actual spin, then saying, “... clearly something is wrong.”
The “true” explanation is given that the light heats the dark sides, and the adsorbed gas molecules from the “evacuated” bulb are expelled with greater speed than from the cooler light sides.
The film continues with a demonstration of the very much smaller effect of momentum transfer by reflection of photons. A gold leaf is suspended in a much higher vacuum, and a very intense beam of light is focused on it, causing it to twist ever so slowly.
... some things, you just can’t forget!
They just discovered drag on the sun ? How long till they discover it on Earth ? Please more bananas.
OK, I’ll say it: “So What?”
We actually pay somebody to research this? To what end?
California theory of purple light for Crookes Radiometer! ;^)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCrnDGOl2xA
Thanks for counteracting the ignorant.
Your comment is quite correct as photonic pressure does indeed provide a force applied to all objects in orbit exposed to direct sunlight. The result is the orbital path of such objects changes over time and requires course corrections by firing thrusters. When the thruster fuel (mass) is used up that vehicle will eventually cease to be operational.
The pressure of light photons is very slight and has been postulated as a propellant force for deep space exploration. Such craft would have to deploy light sails made of very thin metalized Mylar and rigged with Kevlar cords after launch.
The sails would probably be configured something like a parachute jib on a water going sail boat. Manipulating the Kevlar rigging would allow course corrections of the vehicle with no consumption of mass. The sails would have to be huge (acres?) to move a photon powered craft in any reasonable time frame. Tracking the craft from earth with a large laser beam would allow additional boost for a push during the initial phase of the journey.
However, the photon pressure is not causing rotation of the radiometer directly. If you look at the pictures you should notice that each vane is twisted slightly with respect to the center support. Also note that each vane is white on one side while the reverse side is black. Light shining on the radiometer heats the black side of the vanes but has a very slight effect on the white sides. The difference in heating creates a slight convection current of the gas contained in the globe. The motion of the gas is enough to spin the rotor, not the result of light directly.
Regards,
GtG
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.