NASA SDO - The Double Rotating Sun

"Does the Sun rotate?", is a very common question we get. The answer here is a double yes. Not only does the Sun rotate "East to West", but for one brief moment the Sun truly did a 360. Why?

The HMI, which is the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager, Roll happened on October 12. The purpose of this roll is to measure the optical properties of the HMI and AIA instruments.

But let's talk about the "normal" rotation again. Yes, the Sun does rotate. We can observe this by observing sunspots. All sunspots move across the face of the Sun. This motion is part of the general rotation of the Sun on its axis. Observations also indicate that the Sun does not rotate as a solid body, but it spins differentially. That means that it rotates faster at the equator of the Sun and slower at its poles. (The gas giants Jupiter and Saturn also have differential rotation.) The movements of the sunspots indicate that the Sun rotates once every 27 days at the equator, but only once in 31 days at the poles.

Credit: NASA SDO