The sun is not a perfect sphere

Astronomers measured the shape of the sun with unprecedented accuracy

Hugh Hudson and his colleagues from the University of California at Berkeley used a NASA space apparatus and found that the Sun is not a perfect sphere.

Using the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopid Imager the astronoms measured the shape of the star with unprecedented accuracy. They found not only that the sun is not perfectly round shape, but also that over the years of large solar activity it develop slim "melon rind", which significantly increases the apparent flatness in its poles, so Equatorial diameter of the sun becomes a little more than polar.

The sun is the largest and therefore most smooth object in solar system, perfect to 0,001 % due to extremely strong force of gravity, "says Hudson.

According to the astrophysics the further analysis of the data from the study may help to detect the type of seismic waves that astronomy has long suspected that flow through the interior of the sun. They have called it Gravitational oscillation or "g-mode". Scientists suggest that detecting these waves will provide new opportunities for the Study of the sun's internal nucleus.