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Last night I watched a program on TV that made the statement that in the interior of our sun the gravity is so intense that a photon of light can travel only several thousandths of an inch per minute. It takes hundreds of thousands of years for a photon of light to travel from the interior of the sun (near the core) to the surface.
Thats the first time I've heard anything like that about our sun. But, I'm no expert...
Is it true?
If it is true, does the magnetic field in the interior respond as slowly? It should...
Is the center of the sun rotating with approximately the same radial velocity as is observed at the surface? If so, does the mass near the center therefore travel (by rotation alone) at close to the same speed as does a photon? Is that mass traveling at near relativistic speed?
If the interior is not traveling as fast (radially) as the surface, does this dampen the rotation of the sun?
I found the following abstract:
"The hypothesis stating that a chemically inhomogeneous convectively neutral zone is present in the sun, in the region where the angular velocity is at a minimum, is considered. A preliminary study of the 5-min mode frequency splitting is carried out. The results are in qualitative agreement with the experimental data, indicating a large decrease of the rotational velocity at a distance of about 1/4 of the radius from the center."
at http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1987AZh...64..606V
Could relativistic effects near the core explain the observations mentioned in the abstract?
Thats the first time I've heard anything like that about our sun. But, I'm no expert...
Is it true?
If it is true, does the magnetic field in the interior respond as slowly? It should...
Is the center of the sun rotating with approximately the same radial velocity as is observed at the surface? If so, does the mass near the center therefore travel (by rotation alone) at close to the same speed as does a photon? Is that mass traveling at near relativistic speed?
If the interior is not traveling as fast (radially) as the surface, does this dampen the rotation of the sun?
I found the following abstract:
"The hypothesis stating that a chemically inhomogeneous convectively neutral zone is present in the sun, in the region where the angular velocity is at a minimum, is considered. A preliminary study of the 5-min mode frequency splitting is carried out. The results are in qualitative agreement with the experimental data, indicating a large decrease of the rotational velocity at a distance of about 1/4 of the radius from the center."
at http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1987AZh...64..606V
Could relativistic effects near the core explain the observations mentioned in the abstract?