Scientists believe that the Sun is much smaller

The star at the center of our solar system, the Sun, may be infinitely smaller than scientists thought.
A team of two astronomers has found evidence that the radius of our Sun is several hundredths of a percent smaller than previous analyses.
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It may not seem like much, but it could significantly change the way scientists understand the glowing orb of light that sustains life on our planet.
The new results, now undergoing peer review, are based on sound waves generated and trapped inside the hot plasma inside the Sun, called "pressure" or p-modes. Similar to abdominal rumbling, these resonant sounds may hint at pressure changes occurring within the solar gut.
According to astrophysicists Masao Takata of the University of Tokyo and Douglas Gough of the University of Cambridge, p-mode oscillations provide a "dynamically more robust" view of the Sun's interior compared to other oscillating sound waves.
To understand what this means, the easiest way to imagine the Sun is like a bell, although it is not a bell that is struck once, but rather a bell that is repeatedly struck by "many tiny grains of sand," as scientists at Stanford University describe.
All this seismic disturbance creates millions of oscillating sound waves, or "modes," that scientists can measure remotely.
In addition to shock and pull p waves, there are ripples that rise and fall under the influence of gravity, called g-modes, which are called f-modes when they occur closer to the surface of the star. .
As stars become more dense, other modes may emerge that can be used to describe the characteristics of the object.
F-modes are particularly useful for studying the swirling hot plasma inside the Sun, while p-modes are most useful for obtaining the "spherical harmonics" of the Sun.
This is because p-modes are produced by pressure fluctuations inside the Sun. As these waves travel outward, they collide with the Sun's surface (its photosphere) and bounce back inward, bending as they pass through the turbulent plasma, ricocheting off another part of the Sun's surface.
The combination of a huge number of these modes can create a picture of the structure and behavior of the Sun.
But which one to choose?
The traditional reference model of the Sun's seismic radius is based on f-modes because they were measured first.
But some astronomers argue that f-modes are not entirely reliable because they do not extend directly to the edge of the Sun's photosphere. Instead, they seem to "reflect" what Takata and Gough call a "phantom surface."
P-modes, according to some past studies, reach further because they are less susceptible to magnetic fields and turbulence in the upper boundary layer of the Sun's convection zone.
By establishing the Sun's radius based on seismic measurements (rather than visible light or thermal calculations), Takata and Gough argue that p-modes are the way to go.
Their calculations using only p-mode frequencies show that the radius of the solar photosphere is very, very slightly smaller than in the standard solar model.
Despite how small the error was, astrophysicist Emily Brunsden told New Scientist's Alex Wilkins that modifying the more traditional model to fit such findings would not be difficult.
"It's hard to understand the reason for their difference," Brunsden said, "because there are a lot of things going on."