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NASA Space

Fastest Object Ever Made By Humans Continues Circling the Sun, 500x Faster Than Sound (sciencealert.com) 61

Posted by EditorDavid from the slingshot-effect dept.
An anonymous reader shared this report from ScienceAlert: NASA's Parker Solar Probe, tasked with taking a close-up look at the Sun's outer corona, has just equalled the record for the fastest-moving human-made object ever. The previous record holder? The Parker Solar Probe, again. The probe was recorded traveling at 635,266 kilometers (394,736 miles) per hour on June 29, the second time it's reached that speed since it launched in 2018. We're talking around 500 times faster than the speed of sound here. It's on course to get even faster too, with a top speed of around 692,000 kph (430,000 mph) expected when it makes its closest approach to the Sun in 2025.
It's the probe's 20th approach to the sun, according to the article, with the probe using Venus "to create a sort of gravity-powered slingshot," according to the article. (NASA has created a nice interactive 3D model of the probe...)

Besides collecting particle samples in 2021, "The probe is eventually going to get nice and close to the swirling mass of ultra-hot plasma surrounding the Sun, and take a wealth of different measurements to help improve our scientific understanding of it."
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Fastest Object Ever Made By Humans Continues Circling the Sun, 500x Faster Than Sound More

Fastest Object Ever Made By Humans Continues Circling the Sun, 500x Faster Than Sound

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  • "Speed of Sound" (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Arzaboa ( 2804779 ) on Sunday July 14, 2024 @10:59AM (#64624583)

    As this article is talking about things whizzing around in space, one would hope they would be specific about their "Speed of Sound" reference.

    The speed of sound is different depending on the medium. Its different in Glass, Water, on Venus, on Mars, etc....

    While we assume they're talking about Earth at sea level, that seems pretty specific and won't be very useful to aliens when they come across this article.

    --
    No finite point has meaning without an infinite reference point. - Jean-Paul Sartre

    • Yep. Since that's all that's really 'meat' in this bit of news, it really should have been done properly. If you don't even know how the speed of sound works, you shouldn't be doing science reporting at all.

    • The reporter talks about "the speed of the sound here" [on Earth] so he is not completely wrong, just quite obscure. But as speed of sound at the surface of Earth is irrelevant for space travel, he should be instead comparing to more meaningful speeds, such as the orbital velocity of the Moon (1 km/s), or the heliocentric velocity of Voyager 1 (16.6 km/s).

      More wrongness:
      * giving the time to travel from Washington to Tokyo. Is it in straight line (through Earth's outer core) or following a geoid at a certain

      • >he should be instead comparing to more meaningful speeds

        For pop science reporting, I would also accept multiples of common highway speeds (based on the local standard where the article is published), or multiples of a top end drag racer or military jet with the actual speed given in kph (and mph for Americans).

        If the idea is to communicate information, you have to do so in a way that your target audience can understand it.

      • Another thing you have to take into account if you're talking about traveling from Washington DC to Tokyo is are you traveling East to West or West to East because it makes a difference. The travel time is different if you're moving with or against the Earth's rotation.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by klubar ( 591384 )

        Don't you really want to compare it to the speed of light in a vacuum (299,792,458 metres per second or 1.079e+9 kph) as that is a universal constant which the aliens will easily understand.

        To put into context, 692,000 kph is 0.06% the speed of light. This isn't going to be a contender for the Kessel Run.

        Also, don't you need to indicate the frame of reference that you're measuring the speed in?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by 0xG ( 712423 )

      What we really need to know is how many Olympic-sized swimming pools that represents.

    • The reporter was merely trying to reference something that most people understand. The reporter did cite specific numbers of the speed.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by hmilz ( 3035377 )
        Or what he thought people would understand. Most people don't understand (or can imagine) the speed of sound in normal air, let alone 500 times as fast.
        • I would assert more people understand what the speed of sound than you think. Mach number has been around forever and sonic booms are still a thing for people who live near an air force base.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by hmilz ( 3035377 )
      Apart from the silly fact that there is only so much longitudinal wave capable stuff out there, so there is pretty much no sound at all. The person who wrote this report supposedly watched to many sci-fi movies where spacecraft make noises when flying by.

    • While we assume they're talking about Earth at sea level, that seems pretty specific and won't be very useful to aliens when they come across this article.

      I would assume anyone visiting would be too busy laughing at us to bother reading anything we wrote down in Ye Olde English.

      (We humans would be as advanced as aliens visiting had we not pissed away the last 1,000 years carving up a planet into Yours and Mine, perpetually killing each other drawing lines in the sand.)

    • ...the scientists scream at the terrible science reporting.
    • Things whizzing around one ear attached to a pumpkin-sized space of void. Can that ear hear any sound, if nothing's there to process the signal?

    • You are so pedantic!
      You spoiled my day!

  • We're talking around 500 times faster than the speed of sound here

    Someday if my space-car is idling at a stop sign that happens to cross this thing's path, my chances of hearing it coming would be slim because of the doppler effect. Yes, that stuff I just said made lots of sense.

  • Oh dear (Score:3)

    by Archtech ( 159117 ) on Sunday July 14, 2024 @12:07PM (#64624673)

    "Fastest Object Ever Made By Humans..."

    Relative to what? (Physics 101).

    • It's also technically not true as long as you measure that relative to just about anything in the solar system. The fastest objects made by humans would be LHC protons that travel at 99.99996% the speed of light. I suspect the argument they would make against counting these is that the LHC protons are not "made by humans" but since technically all making something involves is rearranging existing matter to get the configuration required, we did make the protons by stripping electrons from hydrogen atoms. In
  • not speed up. This is to bring the orbit closer to the sun where it does travel faster at perihelion. This video explains it very well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      Gravity assists make you change direction. The probe's speed relative to Venus is essentially the same before and after, measured at the same distance. Its velocity is different.

      If you're orbiting something, changing direction can make you speed up or slow down. In this case, speed up relative to the thing you're orbiting, and the thing you came from, and the thing you used for an assist, except for one little part of your orbit.

  • 500 times faster (Score:3)

    by groobly ( 6155920 ) on Sunday July 14, 2024 @03:53PM (#64625021)

    "500 times faster than sound" How fast does sound go around the sun?

    "In interplanetary space near Earth, the mean free path is about one astronomical unit and the speed of sound is on the order of 10 to 100 km/s." So, apparently, this thing is traveling at 5000 to 50,000 km/s." ( https://physics.stackexchange.... [stackexchange.com]. )
    Wow, very impressive. Up to about 17% the speed of light.

  • Just for fun, I did the math and at that speed, it takes 13.5 days to get to Mars (225,000,000 km).

  • Most people who would be interested in this article are familiar with the Voyager probes. They have achieved escape velocity from the sun, currently at about 60 km/hr. That would be 1/10th the speed of the Parker Solar Probe's peak, raising the interesting question of why it is still in orbit around the sun, and what it is about the orbital mechanics that keeps it from just flying away like Voyager I and II.

    • Voyager 1 and 2 are moving at 17 km/second and 15 km/second, respectively.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by pz ( 113803 )

        Aha! That explains part of it then --

        Voyager 1, 17 km/s = 17 km/s * 60 s/min * 60 min/hr = 61,000 km/hr
        Voyager 2, 15 km/s = 15 km/s * 60 s/min * 60 min/hr = 54,000 km/hr

        Which goes to show that you should be more careful about those pesky thousands than I was!

  • The Operation Plumbbob manhole cover had better watch out for the Parker Solar Probe coming up from behind. It had a big head start but the probe is going nearly three times faster...

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