Fed2 Star - the newsletter for the space trading game Federation 2

The weekly newsletter for Fed2
by ibgames

EARTHDATE: September 23, 2012

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REAL LIFE NEWS: THE SUN IS TOO ROUND

by Hazed

You know that big, round ball of fire we see in the sky every day. The burning sphere that gives us heat and life, making life on this planet possible. You know, the sun.

It seems there’s a problem with it.

Scientists have said it’s too round.

You see, the sun has no solid surface, so the fact that it rotates should flatten it out a bit. But new measurements have shown that the flattening is a lot smaller than expected.

In fact, it turns out to be one of the roundest objects ever measured.

If it was shrunk down to the size of a beach ball, the difference between its widest and narrowest diameters would be far less than the width of a human hair, say scientists who are analysing data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite.

Lead researcher Dr Jeff Kuhn, from the University of Hawaii, said, “For years we’ve believed our fluctuating measurements were telling us that the Sun varies, but these new results say something different. While just about everything else in the Sun changes along with its 11-year sunspot cycle, the shape doesn’t.”

So there you have it. The sun is round. Very, very round. Too round.

Source: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/offbeat/sun-is-too-round-say-scientists-16199282.html

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