As the Sun Turns

太阳也在自转？

Everyone knows that the earth turns.

大家都知道地球会自转。

As a matter of fact, the sun turns too. Altough a lot of people don't realize it.

实际上，太阳也会自转。尽管很多人并不知道。

I'm not talking about being in orbit, now the earth definitely orbits the sun and not the other way around. I'm talking about the entire sun spinning on its axis¹, like a globe when you give it a push with your hand.

我不是说在轨道上运转。地球当然是围绕太阳转，但不会反过来（太阳绕地球转）。我说的是太阳以自身为轴转动，就像地球仪你用手推它一下就会自己转动。

The sun spins around its own axis with a period of about twenty-seven days. That means it takes twenty seven days for the same side to come around again. Back in the seventeenth century, Galileo was the first person to point out that sunspots move from day to day, giving him the idea that the whole sun might be rotating.

太阳自转的周期大约为27天。这意味着要27天的时间同侧才会转回来。早在17世纪，伽利略是第一个指出太阳黑子是一天天地移动，由此给他启发太阳可能也在转动。

Even today, a lot of people aren't aware of the suns rotation², simply because you can't look directly at it. But Galileo was absolutely right, as our modern observations confirm.

即使现在，很多人仍然感觉不到太阳的转动，那只是因为我们不能直视太阳。但经过我们现代的观察证实伽利略是对的。