It's not a simple yes or no question.
No it does not.
The Sun does rotate, but it does not rotate like the Earth.
That's because, despite its fluid center and atmosphere, the Earth rotates (more or less) like a rigid body, all of it rotating at (again: more or less) the same speed. One day is 24 hours, no matter where on—or in—the Earth you are.
The Sun, however, is manifestly not a rigid body. It is a gigantic ball of superheated plasma, which means that different parts of the sun rotate at different rates.
The equator of the Sun completes a full rotation once every 24.5 days, while the poles take almost 38 days to complete a rotation.
It can be a little bit difficult to spot with the naked eye, but you can just about appreciate the difference in speeds of the sunspots in this video:
Modern helioseismology has also provided significant evidence that the rate of rotation inside the Sun also varies hugely—so the surface can rotate up to 40 percent faster than the material halfway between the core and the surface.
Hence, the sun does rotate, but nothing like the Earth.
The Sun does rotate, but it does not rotate like the Earth.
That's because, despite its fluid center and atmosphere, the Earth rotates (more or less) like a rigid body, all of it rotating at (again: more or less) the same speed. One day is 24 hours, no matter where on—or in—the Earth you are.
The Sun, however, is manifestly not a rigid body. It is a gigantic ball of superheated plasma, which means that different parts of the sun rotate at different rates.
The equator of the Sun completes a full rotation once every 24.5 days, while the poles take almost 38 days to complete a rotation.
It can be a little bit difficult to spot with the naked eye, but you can just about appreciate the difference in speeds of the sunspots in this video:
Modern helioseismology has also provided significant evidence that the rate of rotation inside the Sun also varies hugely—so the surface can rotate up to 40 percent faster than the material halfway between the core and the surface.
Hence, the sun does rotate, but nothing like the Earth.
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