Questions tagged [the-sun]
Questions regarding the Sun, or Sol in Latin, the star at the center of the solar system Earth is in.
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Disposing of Obsolete Satellites by Propelling to the Sun
I'm not scientifically adept, so bear with me. Would it be feasible to retain enough fuel on new satellites/space stations, etc., that we could dispose of them when obsolete by sending them to the ...
Jim Elmore
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Why is the Sun influence a mere perturbation to the Moon NRHO (the orbit the Gateway should be put in the context of project Artemis)?
An article of the relevant literature Heliocentric Escape and Lunar Impact from Near Rectilinear Halo Orbits asserts: "As the spacecraft departs the immediate vicinity of the NRHO, the effects of ...
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Strange swirls on the latest image from SOHO
Earlier today, I was looking at the latest image from SOHO and noticed some odd swirly lines at the bottom left of the image. They no longer appear on the site, but I saved the image before they were ...
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For an object in a geostationary orbit to have the same apparent diameter as the sun, how big would it have to be?
I know this is just a maths question, but sorry I can't work it out :p
Suppose you wanted to make something like Mr Burns' sun blocker:
But in orbit, not attached to ...
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Distance between Sun and Earth using JPL horizons
Using the JPL Horizons app at https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons/app.html#/ would someone help to calculate the distance between the Sun and the Earth say 1 May 2023 00:00 UT? I used the following for ...
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What exactly is PDCSAP flux used in kepler missions?
I am having trouble finding a good explanation for what PDCSAP flux is. One place it's mentioned is here. What exactly is PDCSAP flux is in relation to something like the apparent magnitude of a star?
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Icy Hot Astronauts [duplicate]
According to the specifications of the Apollo 13 lunar module where the astronauts were during their emergency return to Earth, the walls were about the thickness of a coke can so how were they able ...
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If JWST can look into 13 billion years past then why it cannot check sun formation which happened only 4.603 billion years ago?
If JWST can look into past then why it cannot find how the sun formed 4.603 billion years back?
I heard that JWST will process infrared light waves to make them more clear to the human eye but not it ...
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How far is the solar system's center of mass from the sun? [duplicate]
We often say that the planets orbit the sun. But, in reality, they orbit the solar system's collective center of mass. How far is that point from the center of the sun?
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GMAT Sun Ephemeris Output
I need the sun's position vector for an analysis, conducted in Matlab.
Thus, I let output the ephemeris files for the spacecrafts and additionally I would like to do the same with the sun.
A Report ...
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What are the moving particles that can be seen by the Parker Solar Probe?
There ate two images below from the Parker Probe, one of Venus and the second from the Sun. The second one is a screenshot from a recent video (Youtube of Parker imagery while in solar corona).
In ...
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Since we humans are't able to process any dimensions like 4D and 5D, the distance between stars and galexies appers to be too far away [duplicate]
For exmaple a living oraganism of 2D world is unable to perseive a 3D world.
Similary, do humans have such limitations to perseive the further dimensions that 3D, that could results in wrong ...
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Orbital Mechanics and Launching into the Sun
Astronomy.com's Here's why we can't just rocket nuclear waste into the sun is an excellent explanation of the delta-V required to launch from Earth orbit into the Sun (30 km/s) vs. to escape from the ...
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Does the Moon's orbit intersect the Earth's orbit around the Sun?
I know that the Moon's orbital plane makes an angle of 5 degrees with the Earth's orbital plane or the ecliptic. Also, the Moon's orbit intersects the Earth's orbital plane at two nodes - ascending ...
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Journey to the center of the Sun (best trajectory)
Let's assume there is unlimitedly rich eccentric person living nowadays, who has been just diagnosed with a kind of terminal cancer (estimates are 3 years left) and their last wish is to jump into a ...
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What would happen to an astronaut on the surface of Mars if a Carrington-event-like superflare hit the red planet?
If a coronal mass ejection with the intensity of the Carrington event1 or more hit Mars, what would happen to an astronaut on its surface who is too far from their base to return to in time? Assuming ...
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The rotation speed of the sun's equator in degrees per second [closed]
I'm just looking for a °/s speed of the suns equator. I'm coding a sun in unreal engine, so I'm looking for its equator speed. I've seen two incorrect posts using different speeds per day, and I'm too ...
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Would Mars become habitable to life if the sun starts to expand into a red giant? [closed]
If the sun expands then the distance between the sun and mars would become shorter. Thus more heat would reach Mars and perhaps the polar icecaps would melt. Could this lead to a thicker atmosphere ...
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Does Perseverance have a gnomon on it?
Though How many sundials, Sun compasses and gnomons are there on solar system bodies? is as yet unanswered, Wikipedia's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MarsDial currently tells us that only the ...
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How to convert body coordinate from Sun reference frame to Earth reference frame?
I have the coordinates of a celestial body w.r.t. Sun , expressed as (x,y,z), at a given time.
I need to move this coordinates into a reference frame centered on Earth center, but after reading dozens ...
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How much energy from the Sun could we get if we use Jupiter or the Earth as an atmospheric lens?
How much energy (watts) from sunlight could arrive to the focal point if we use Jupiter or the Earth as an atmospheric lens by using refraction?
How far the focal point would have to be placed for ...
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How efficient and fast would seven Caplan thrusters be at pushing the Sun and would it be worth building more than one?
I was thinking about stellar engines. One type of stellar engine is the Caplan thruster, which concentrates the star's light onto the star's surface to create beams of solar wind, which are collected ...
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When the magnetic poles of the Sun flip (once in 11 years), is the Earth hit by more galactic cosmic rays?
The Sun protects us from cosmic rays from beyond the solar system. Every 11 years, the Sun's poles reverse.
Solar cosmic rays are greatest during the reversal.
During the reversal, are we hit by more ...
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Is disabling glare common in space?
I'd like to know if astronauts have been under the effect of Disabling Glare, how easily this could accidentally happen and how long can last if this happen?
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Why is it easier to escape the solar system than get to Mercury or the Sun?
It has been mentioned several times on this site that it is "easier" (less delta-v, and hence less fuel) to reach the escape velocity of the solar system, than to reach the planet Mercury or ...
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Could the magnetosphere of Mercury protect humans?
In theory, we built a space station orbiting Mercury like the ISS on Earth. Will the magnetosphere of Mercury similarly protect humans from this radiation (despite being close to the sun)?
NGC224
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How does the Solar Orbiter take images so close to the sun without melting its camera?
The EUI on the NASA/ESA Solar Orbiter recently captured the closest ever images of the sun. How is that made possible without destroying the imager?
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Was solar newbie Solar Orbiter able to get "closer" to the Sun than Parker Solar Probe so quickly?
The NASA News headline ESA/NASA's Solar Orbiter Returns First Data, Snaps Closest Pictures of the Sun caught my eye because Solar Orbiter (2020-010A) was launched just five months ago whereas Parker ...
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How deep into the corona could the Parker Solar Probe go without being damaged?
An answer to the question Has any object launched from Earth gone into the Sun? says
The probe will repeatedly touch the outer corona until mission end in 2025, with the closest approach being 3.83 ...
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Do you need 0 km/s velocity to crash into the sun?
I was reading a popular thread about the delta-v required to escape the solar system compared to the delta-v required to crash into the sun. I get it: the earth itself already has a high speed (29.7km/...
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Did any spacecraft ever use the Sun's gravity for acceleration?
Space probes often use planets to accelerate onto a trajectory towards their goal(s) without having to consume too much fuel. But the fastest acceleration would be made through the Sun's gravity if ...
user35272
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Why did ESA's Solar Orbiter mission's target inclination drop from 34 to 25°?
Wikipedia says that:
During the planned 7-year mission the orbital inclination will be raised to about 25°
But the information below shows that originally the target final inclination was much ...
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How strong is Sun magnetic field on Moon surface? And on Mars?
I wan to calculate the voltage difference generated by sun EM Field on a wire placed on Moon or Mars surface, but I can't find consistent data about solar EM Field.
I found different values:
The ...
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Space and Newton laws
I've read some articles which explain that we can't totally rely on Newtonian gravity concepts for understanding the motion of objects in space.
My question is how the use of relativity helps us to ...
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What is the gravitational acceleration of the Sun?
What is the gravitational acceleration of the Sun?
I've seen numbers such as 274 m/s2, but that doesn't make sense to me seeing that relatively weak sources of spacecraft thrust such as Electric ...
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Is the Heliosphere as elliptical as this graphic suggests?
I noticed the following graphic being used in an article discussing the Voyager probes. It also appears on Wikipedia's Heliosphere page:
The same page states that:
On a broader scale, the motion ...
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Will ESA's Solar Orbiter crash into Venus? If so, why?
The BBC News article European SolO probe ready to take on audacious mission links to the ESA video shown below and contains this 5 minute audio interview with NASA deputy project scientist on the ...
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What is ESA's Solar Orbiter's target inclination?
The BBC News article European SolO probe ready to take on audacious mission links to the ESA video shown below and contains this 5 minute audio interview with NASA deputy project scientist on the ...
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How to deteremine the angle between Sun and 2 probes?
I have the orbital position and velocity and the orbital parameter of 2 spacecraft at LEO, how to define the angle between Sun - Probe 2 - Probe 1 in ECI frame (If you imagine at a point sun then ...
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What happens if you put rings with the mass of several suns around a black hole? [closed]
Can someone also explain to me what happens from 7:24 to 9:20 (basically he creates a sun, locks it in place, the sun starts absorbing the black holes' rings and growing, it starts dropping pieces of ...
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Has any object launched from Earth gone into the Sun?
I've seen a lot of questions about the $\Delta V$ required to reach the Sun from the Earth (~22-30 km/s if I remember correctly), firing a bullet into the sun, etc.
But has this ever happened? Has ...
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Is it really ~648.69 km/s delta-v to "land" on the surface of the Sun?
According to the following diagram it would require ~648.69 km/s to do all of the intermediate transfers that would land you at or around the sun's surface at perigee. Is this a real number? How would ...
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Main issues space telescopes face when pointing in the same general direction as the Sun?
What are the main issues that space telescopes face when pointing at objects that are in the same general direction as the Sun? Why do they generally schedule their observing for objects in the ...
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PIR application as a sun sensor
Is there any history or merit to using a PIR (Pyroelectric ("Passive") InfraRed Sensor) as a sun sensor for determining the attitude or position of a Satellite?
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What Gravity does the Sun affect items with at the distance of 1 AU?
At the surface of the Earth, the force of gravity is defined as 1 G.
I am wondering what gravitational force the sun excerts at the distance of 1 AU (the distance Earth is at). Imagine it like this; ...
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How would molten or liquid metal be transported in open space? [closed]
How to transport a ball of liquid, molten metal nearest to the Sun possible? It must be close to the Sun for the metal to stay molten.
However, to stay safely cool enough, the spacecraft must always ...
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What is the shielding capability of liquid metal compaired to solid metal?
For simplicity, consider a spherical metal shape for shielding cargo/people behind. (The liquid ball is supposed to be between the Sun and the cargo. Not people inside it.)
A problem I see is that it ...
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Is a solar free-return trajectory possible?
I'm coining a new phrase: "Dyson circuit". Is it possible, with current solar orbital capabilities (see Parker Solar Probe), to drive artificial satellites in a free-return trajectory around the Sun?
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How do scientists determine how big a certain star is? [closed]
I was just wondering, many people say that there are stars that are waay bigger than our sun and in some videos they even try to say the exact diameter of the Sun, but I was wondering: How can ...
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How cold was it in the shade of the Parker solar probe?
What was the temperature in the shade of the Parker solar probe? Do to the proximity at the closest point the probe got to the Sun how much shade can be produced at that range?
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