

Sun is the most perfect sphere ever observed in nature - tokenadult
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/aug/16/sun-perfect-sphere-nature

======
tokenadult
I thought this headline was startling, and after reading through the article
submitted here, I hunted up more reporting on the issue. The abstract of the
underlying research report

[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2012/08/15/science.1...](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2012/08/15/science.1223231.abstract)

leads to the full report in the journal Science for people who can get through
the Science paywall, and other reporting on the research report from Science
staff writers

[http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/08/sun-slimmer-
th...](http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/08/sun-slimmer-than-
expected.html)

and from other journalists

[http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/08/120817-sun-s...](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/08/120817-sun-
shape-round-science-space-nasa/)

[http://www.nature.com/news/sun-stays-nearly-spherical-
even-w...](http://www.nature.com/news/sun-stays-nearly-spherical-even-when-it-
freaks-out-1.11224)

fills in some of the details.

------
Foy
Kind of funny that the most perfect sphere ever observed in nature was staring
us in the face this whole time. :)

Also, how is it that this was only measured just recently? Astronomers
suspected it was wider at the equator, like Jupiter, but never bothered to
check?

------
alpine
_As a spinning ball of gas, astronomers had always expected our nearest star
to bulge slightly at its equator, making it very slightly flying-saucer
shaped_

I stopped reading at this point.

