Watch: What is making the sun slow down as it rotates on its axis (yes, it does, just like Earth)?

It’s hard to tell from here, thankfully, but the outer layer of the sun is rotating slower than before. (Oh yes, the sun does rotate round its axis.)

But does that matter to us here on earth?

Well, yes and no. Yes, because the discovery of why this is happening was made from 150 million kilometres away, which is remarkable evidence of just how far theoretical astrophysics has travelled towards unravelling the mysteries of the universe.

And no, because this by itself won’t affect the fate of the sun – and of the solar system – anytime before the universe ends.

Still, what’s amazing about the reasons being hypothesised is that it is because of photons, which are massless particles of light, and so tiny that they really should have no impact on something as mammoth as the sun.

Yet, by acquiring the momentum of dust particles in space with which they collide, the photons that emerge from the surface of the sun do actually manage to slow down the rotation of the star just a little bit.

Clearly, these light particles are anything but lightweight when it comes to impact.