Q. With reference to the Sun, consider the following statements:
1.The Sun rotates more quickly at its equator than at its poles.
2.Sunspots are darker and at higher temperature than other areas of the Sun.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer: A
Notes:
- Statement 1 is correct.Since the Sun is a ball of gas/plasma, it does not have to rotate rigidly like the solid planets and moons do. In fact, the Sun’s equatorial regions rotate faster (taking only about 24 days) than the polar regions (which rotate once in more than 30 days).
- This differential rotation persists to about a third of the way inside the Sun, where the rotation becomes uniform from pole to pole.
- Statement 2 is incorrect: Sunspots are areas that appear dark on the surface of the Sun. They appear dark because they are cooler than other parts of the Sun’s surface. Solar flares are a sudden explosion of energy caused by tangling, crossing or reorganizing of magnetic field lines near sunspots.
