At that rate, it will be gone in half a million years. I guess we can stop worrying about anthropomorphic climate change. /s
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‘The Sun is not a static sphere but a dynamic, pulsating entity, shrinking at a rate of about 5 feet per hour horizontally.’
What does ‘horizontally’ mean when referring to a spheroid floating in Space?
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Using the sun’s equator/equatorial plane as reference. That way it would make sense, anyway.
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The sun is a variable star, this seems to be part of the mechanism. Since fusion happens mostly in the core, there must be a cyclic pulse – fusion in the core heats up, expanding the core and ultimately the Sun itself, then with densities lower fusion slows down and starts to cool. That much mass moving must have an incredible amount of momentum, and that “crunch” must increase core density and/or mixes in more fuel into the core, which fuses more and gets hotter, causing it to expand again. Wash, rinse, repeat.
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Indeed. And patterns of brightening and dimming have been observed for hundreds of years. The capability to measure/calculate the diameter with any accuracy is new.
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well, see. we can believe the scientists when they say the sun is shrinking but not when they say this is independent of climate change. therefore we know the shrinking sun is reason the weather ™ is different this year. ( also /s )
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