what shape is the sun ? spherical or elliptical

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Hemoo

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actually this is a question and i hope any one can help me answering it ...:)


what shape is the sun ? spherical or elliptical :?

please if you know tell me and i hope someone give me a refrence from NASA or so ..

after edit note :i had an idea but i will not be able to post it untill i make sure i am right ,so after i do a good research in it then i will be able to publish it ...
 
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http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=3129
is the Sun spherical or oval?
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You seem to be confusing two different shapes. Planetary orbits are in general elliptical, some more than others. The planets themselves, as well as the sun, are roughly spherical, somewhat flattened at the poles because of rotation.
mathman
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The Sun is an oblate spheroid. Its shape is caused by its rotation, as mathman explained.

The word 'ellipse' describes a precise curve in two dimensions. It is not correct to say that a three-dimensional body is elliptical. The words for "stretched" spheres are "oblate spheroid" and "prolate spheroid," referring to spheres squashed at the poles or around the equator, respectively.

The movement of the planets and the shape of the central mass are not related. The shape of the Sun is unrelated to the shapes of the orbits of the planets. The shapes of the orbits of the planets are unrelated to the shape of the Sun.

When you're far away from a mass, the mass acts gravitationally as if it were concentrated in a point. As far as the planets are concerned (since they're far away from the Sun), the Sun is just a point mass. As far as the Moon is concerned, the Earth is just a point mass. The planets follow elliptical orbits, but it has nothing to do with the shape of the body they're orbiting.

You can solve Newton's universal law of gravitation (F = G (m1 m2) / r2) to discover that bodies orbit in curves described by conic sections (circles, ellipses, parabolae, and hyperbolae) with the center of mass of the system at one focus.
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strider said:
It is an oblate spheroid.
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Correct.

Now for plain English that is a ball with a fat waist line. The Suns Equator is it's largest diameter. Sort of like taking a short, round fat man, and pressing on his head hard enough to make his belly bulge out.
 
so the sun is not completly rounded
it is not the shape of a ball ??
 
besides the sun seems like a complete circle when we look at it , does that means its a complete sphere ?
 
hemoo said:
besides the sun seems like a complete circle when we look at it , does that means its a complete sphere ?
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I think the others have explained it pretty well. Although maybe I should add the don't-do-it-at-home warning; NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN EXCEPT THROUGH A ASTRONOMICAL SUN FILTER, PEOPLE.

The sun is a pretty close approximation to a sphere, if you ignore solar flares and such. It 'bulges' slightly at the equator because of centripetal force arising from its rotation around a central axis - where the sun-stuff moves fastest if you like. It's the same effect as if you tie a stone to a piece of string and swing it around in a circle - you feel the stone 'pulling' outwards. The string stops it flying away in the same way gravity stops the sun-stuff flying out into space.

BTW, something to ponder on before you post what I think you are going to post next. Imagine that you lived in, say, 7th century Arabia. You want to demonstrate to someone that some object far away that you have seen but your companion has not is perfectly spherical. Which easily available, or even slightly less easily available, ordinary household object would you produce to demonstrate a perfectly spherical shape?
 
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wow we have some very educated peeps here....i love this stuff...thanks for asking this, and thanks for answering it...good read:thumbs_up
 
Trumble said:
BTW, something to ponder on before you post what I think you are going to post next. Imagine that you lived in, say, 7th century Arabia. You want to demonstrate to someone that some object far away that you have seen but your companion has not is perfectly spherical. Which easily available, or even slightly less easily available, ordinary household object would you produce to demonstrate a perfectly spherical shape?
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what are you implying to

where did the prophet (peace be upon him) said such a thing to his companions ?
 
hemoo said:
what are you implying to

where did the prophet (peace be upon him) said such a thing to his companions ?
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You really don't know what I'm talking about? In that case, I apologise, as I seem to have misjudged what your "good surprise" might be. What is it, BTW?

What I am referring to, and where I thought you were leading was to 79:30 which says, in translation, obviously;

"And the earth, moreover, Hath He made egg shaped".

As I understand it, the arabic word - no doubt an Arabic speaker will correct me if I'm wrong - actually refers to an ostrich egg which, never having seen one, I understand far more closely resembles an oblate spheroid than other birds' eggs. The verse is therefore interpreted as describing the shape of the earth as an oblate spheroid which is something the people at the the time could not possibly have known. I had thought, mistakenly obviously, that you were somehow going to apply this to the Sun.

The point I was making in my previous was merely that if people in the Prophet's time believed the earth to be a sphere (and that had been suggested many years before Mohammed's birth, and may even have been the prevailing opinion in some places) they would also have compared it to an ostrich egg, there being nothing perfectly spherical (ball bearings, billiard balls, etc, etc) to compare it to. The verse therefore suggests that the author of the verse (which, as a non-muslim I do not believe to be God) 'merely' believed that the earth was round rather than flat, as opposed to being in possession of modern scientific knowledge. However, it's only fair to suggest that you look up the muslim interpretations of this; you are probably likely to find them far more convincing than I do!
 
well if you see the interpretations and explanations of the previous muslims they have done their best to understand the verses of the Quran but the Quran is basicly in arabic so you go to the arabic dictionaries to see if what the current muslims saying about the scientific miracles is true or false ...

and i have seen the word دحاها read (DA7AHA) in the arabic - arabic dictionary (named almuugam alwagij) and it mentioned more than one meaning one of them was really referring to the ostrich egg...
 
and the same word is being used by some arabs to refer to the chicken egg.
 

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