​

Astronomers from the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy (IfA), Brazil, and Stanford University may have solved a long-standing solar mystery.

Two decades ago, scientists discovered that the outer five percent of the sun spins more slowly than the rest of its interior. Now, in a new study, to be published in the journalPhysical Review Letters, IfA Maui scientists Ian Cunnyngham, Jeff Kuhn, and Isabelle Scholl, together with Marcelo Emilio (Brazil) and Rock Bush (Stanford), describe the physical mechanism responsible for slowing the sun’s outer layers.

Team leader Jeff Kuhn said “The sun won’t stop spinning…