Theresa Mcfadden, age 13, of Williamsport, Pa., for her question:

Is it true that the sun rotates?

The sun spins around on its axis from the west toward the east. This is the same direction in which the earth and the other planets rotate. However, the planets are solid bodies, and the sun is a globe of restless gases. The earth rotates as a rigid globe. The flowing gases of the sun are dragged along and pulled out of place by the rotation of our spinning star.

At the sun's equator, where the big globe must spin fastest, one rotation is completed in 24.65 earth days. At 20 degrees north and south of the equator, Where the surface of the sun rotates more slowly, each rotation takes 25.19 earth days. At 60 degrees north and south, where surface rotation is still slower, each spin takes 30.93 Earth days.