NASA Spacecraft Unraveling Sun's Mysteries as it Spirals Closer To Our Star (theverge.com) 30
In August of last year, NASA sent a spacecraft hurtling toward the inner Solar System, with the aim of getting some answers about the mysterious star at the center of our cosmic neighborhood. Now more than a year later, that tiny robot has started to decode some of the mysteries surrounding our Sun's behavior, after venturing closer to our parent star than any human-made object has before. From a report: That spacecraft is NASA's Parker Solar Probe, a car-sized vehicle designed to withstand temperatures of more then 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Its various instruments are protected by an extra hardy heat shield, designed to keep the spacecraft relatively cool as it gets near our balmy host star. Already, the Parker Solar Probe has gotten up close and personal with the Sun, coming within 15 million miles of the star -- closer than Mercury and any other spacecraft sent to the Sun before. "We got into the record books already," Adam Szabo, the mission scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for Parker Solar Probe, tells The Verge.
Before the spacecraft's launch, researchers were particularly interested in learning more about what's coming out of the Sun. Energetic particles and plasma are continuously streaming from the Sun at all times -- a phenomena that's been dubbed solar wind. This highly energized material makes its way to Earth, causing the dazzling display of the aurora borealis. If we get too much of this stuff, it can sometimes muck up our spacecraft in orbit and even mess with our electric grid. There's still a lot we don't know about solar wind, such as what is accelerating this material so much that it can break free from the Sun. Learning the origins of the wind could help us better predict how it will impact us here on Earth.
Before the spacecraft's launch, researchers were particularly interested in learning more about what's coming out of the Sun. Energetic particles and plasma are continuously streaming from the Sun at all times -- a phenomena that's been dubbed solar wind. This highly energized material makes its way to Earth, causing the dazzling display of the aurora borealis. If we get too much of this stuff, it can sometimes muck up our spacecraft in orbit and even mess with our electric grid. There's still a lot we don't know about solar wind, such as what is accelerating this material so much that it can break free from the Sun. Learning the origins of the wind could help us better predict how it will impact us here on Earth.
I hope they land at night (Score:4, Funny)
Too hot during the day.
Sorry, but someone had to, now we got it out of the way.
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that word is misspelled in the title
No, it's not [wiktionary.org] misspelt [wiktionary.org].
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"2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. "
What's that in 21st century measurements?
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It's the heat of three burning Libraries of Congress.
I am disappoint (Score:2)
NASA Spacecraft Unraveling Sun's Mysteries as it Spirals Closer To Our Star
"NASA Spacecraft Illuminating Sun's Mysteries as it Spirals Closer To Our Star" would have been a much better title.
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Illuminati infiltration of NASA confirmed.
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NASA Spacecraft Unraveling Sun's Mysteries as it Spirals Closer To Our Star
"NASA Spacecraft Illuminating Sun's Mysteries as it Spirals Closer To Our Star" would have been a much better title.
"NASA Spacecraft Illuminating Sun's Mysteries as it Spirals Ever Closer To Its Fiery Death" would have been an even better title.
Difficult (Score:2)
Forgetting for a second the heat and radiation involved, it is extremely difficult to launch something at the sun. The Earth is orbiting it at 30km/s so in order to achieve a decaying orbit relative to the sun we'd need to launch something at a very significant percentage of that speed in the opposite direction or it would just escape the solar system.
Popular Mechanics did a article [popularmechanics.com] on this.
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That would make it easy to escape the solar system, which is not the case.
Difficult - But measuarable. (Score:2)
The physics needed to do this is well known, also for rocket science once you go into space a lot of those other factors such as friction and resistance drops down to near 0 (not actually 0) so the actual path follows the Math rather closely. This is why a lot of space craft have these complex slingshot maneuvers where over decades you can get a precise mission plan. While on earth, with all these extra factors we could barely predict an objects motion after a few minutes.
Difficult- which is why we use gravity assist (Score:5, Informative)
Forgetting for a second the heat and radiation involved, it is extremely difficult to launch something at the sun. The Earth is orbiting it at 30km/s so in order to achieve a decaying orbit relative to the sun we'd need to launch something at a very significant percentage of that speed in the opposite direction...
The physics needed to do this is well known... This is why a lot of space craft have these complex slingshot maneuvers
Right, and in fact gravity slingshot maneuvers are how Parker Solar Probe lowers its orbit.
Original poster is right, it is extremely difficult to drop in close to the sun. Parker made a close pass of Venus to use Venus' gravity to slow down its orbit, which lowered the perihelion of its orbit (the part closest to the sun). Then it will make a total of seven repeat passes by Venus to incrementally lower the perihelion further.
https://news.engin.umich.edu/2018/08/venus-assists-probe-to-reach-sun [umich.edu]
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Uh, no. It would just go into a long elliptical orbit like Halley's Comet. If you just wanted to smash into the sun all you'd need is the right direction no matter how fast you're going. True, if you missed the Sun you'd go shooting out the other side not to return for hundreds or thousands of years but if you actually hit it the Sun will take care of decelerating/disintegrating it for you. It should be no problem to do a "reverse Voyager" that throws the craft straight into the sun instead of out of the so
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Just a wrong guess (Score:2)
There's still a lot we don't know about solar wind, such as what is accelerating this material so much that it can break free from the Sun
I'm putting my money on a big-ass fusion reaction.
The big-ass fusion reaction is hundreds of thousands of miles away from where the solar wind is being accelerated.
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2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (Score:2, Interesting)
for everyone else it is about 1,400 Centigrade -- who, these days, uses Fahrenheit -- except, maybe, the weather ?
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Or a far more relatable unit 1600 Kelvin. After all when people type "what is the temperature of the sun" into Google the answer (as with all things space and astronomy) will be given in Kelvin.
Solar wind is NOT relatively constant at Earth (Score:2)
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No, Earth's magnetic poles are probably not about to reverse polarity, at least not for the next several thousand years. I would recommend researching the subject through a group that uses actual scientific observations and real historical data, not 'SuspiciousObservers' conspiracy theorists.
But it's dark at night, right? (Score:3)
Except at night.
patented Star Trek gravity slingshot time machine! (Score:2)
Check this shit out (Fig. 1 [jhuapl.edu]). That's bonafide, 100%-real data, my friends.
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There already was a Japanese spacecraft with that name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (Score:1)
electricity (Score:1)
probably not on slashdot, or at nasa. I wonder if the sun cares their opinions.
Sunshine (Score:2)