Retrograde orbit

Learned today--retrograde orbit--used to describe a planet which rotates in the opposite direction as the rotation of it's star.

Also learned, in trying to figure out what that means--stars rotate about their axes! And thus the sun, Sol, rotates about its axis (I was tempted to add an incorrect apostrophe in "its" there, just to annoy other nitpickers like me.) Morever, it's rotation is differential, which means it rotates at different speeds at the equator and the poles--a rotation every 27 days at the equator, and a rotation every 31 days at the poles. Given the circumference of the sun at the equator, this means that anyone standing on the equator is not only moving enormously faster than someone standing near the pole--they are moving *even more* enormously faster. Kewl. What is the speed of someone standing on the equator of the sun relative to the sun's axis?

If a dude stands at the pole, and another dude stands at the equator, so that they are on the same longitude, then given the differential rotation, what is the period between which they first are on the same longitude and they again are on the same longitude? Hmmmmmm.

Here's a kewl picture of the absolute relative sizes of the earth and the sun

Here's a kewl picture of the absolute relative sizes of the sun and the star VY Canis Majoris.

Feel tiny yet?

If not, maybe this diagram will help.

How does the goldilocks zone of VY Canis Majoris compare to the Goldilocks zone of Sol, in AU?

I bet it's *way* further out.

(Hey, check it out, I'm number 3 on this google search)