The Sun's Period of Rotation

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The sun's period of rotation (adapted from the Universe at Your Fingertips) Procedure 1. Locate the major group of sunspots on the photographs in Figure 5. 2. Place the plastic overlay (Figure 4) on the photographs so that you can determine the latitude and longitude for the major sunspot group. Each vertical and horizontal line equals 10◦ latitude and longitude, respectively. 3. Estimate how far the sunspot group moves between day one and day two by subtracting the smaller longitude from the larger. Record this longitude change in the Table below. Estimate this number to the nearest whole degree. 4. Repeat the same process for the next days up to day four and record your results. 5. The Earth revolves around the Sun at a rate of 360 degrees in one year (365 days) or an average motion of about 1◦ per day. Since Earth revolves around the Sun in the same direction as the Sun rotates, our motion seems to chase after the sunspots. Thus, the apparent movement of sunspots is less than the real rotation by about 1◦ per day. Therefore, you must compensate for the orbital motion of Earth by adding 1◦ to your computed apparent daily motion. Add this result to column 4. 6. Let us assume that sunspots are features whose position on the Sun do not change very much over the course of a solar rotation. Use the following proportion to calculate the Sun's period of rotation (in days): corrected longitude change 360 degrees = 1 day X days 7. Find the average rotational period and record it in the Table below. Calculate to the nearest tenth of a day. Longitude of Sunspot Group Change in Longitude Corrected Longitude Change Period of Rotation (Ex: Day 2 - Day 1) (Solve for \X") Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Questions 1. Based on your calculations, what do you think is the period of the sun's rotation? How does this compare to the periods of Earth's rotation and Earth's orbit around the Sun? 1 2. Suppose you needed to get a much more accurate measurement of the sun's rotation. How might you achieve this? 3. Suppose you took photos of the sun separated by very short intervals (10 minutes) or very long intervals (100 days). Would you be able to determine the rotation period with either of these sets of measurements? Why or why not? 4. Compare the photo you took of the sun today with the photos in Figure 5. How are the two images similar, and how are they different? How do you explain these similarities and differences? 5. At some times in history, some cultures thought that all bodies in the sky were perfect - perfectly round and uniform, with no blemishes of any kind. Suppose you lived in one of these cultures and discovered sunspots on the sun. How would this change your view of the universe? What would you do with this information? Would you tell others, or would you be afraid to tell others? 6. Challenge question: Suppose the sun's period of rotation was exactly one year (365 days). How would the images in Figure 5 be different? 7. Challenge question: Suppose the Earth were closer to the sun and it took the Earth 180 days to orbit the sun. What correction would you need to apply to compute the correct change in longitude of the sunspots? 2.

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