• Question: What is so special about the sound waves propagating in suns?

    Asked by Chickenophile to Connor on 21 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Connor Macrae

      Connor Macrae answered on 21 Jun 2015:

      They are quite similar to waves moving through the Earths’ crust, however we can use observed wavefields on the Suns surface to find out a lot of information about the inside of the Sun – there is no other way to do this! Understanding and observations of waves on the surface have told us all about the Suns strange rotation and it’s dynamo (this generates the Sun’s magnetic field). It can even allow us to build a picture of the opposite side of the Sun to predict if a large active region (group of sunspots) emerges.

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