Lifeboat Foundation

From the archives.

Solar rotation rates. Credit: NASA

Most Astronomy 101 courses continually pound the idea that our own star is almost boringly average. After all, it’s only one of billions of G-spectral type, solar-like stars in the galaxy.

But the sun’s relative magnetic quiescence, in comparison to other sun-like stars, may be the reason we’re here to talk about it. Or so suggests new observations of a nearby bright solar type star that is a close analogue to our own.