Differential nature of solar rotation discovered by Richard Carrington

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Jessica Gossling (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Domains

Astronomy

Dates

Date of occurrence 1863

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

Resources

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Because the sun is made of gas, it does not rotate as a unified body, but instead different parts of it rotate at different speeds. Richard Christopher Carrington recorded observations of sunspots over a period of time, which revealed that they travelled in inconsistent ways. Due to his discoveries, he lent his name to 'Carringtonian rotation', a system for comparing locations on the sun over time, based on his calculation that the sun rotates every 25.38 days, which from Earth we see as 27.2753 days.

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83 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Differential nature of solar rotation discovered by Richard Carrington". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 August 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=6326, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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