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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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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0answers
80 views
What is the effect of a solar flare on electronics on the surface of Mars?
Mars has practically no magnetosphere. Where does the impact of a solar flare on the electronics of Mars landers and rovers fall along the scale of nothing to EMP?
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1answer
252 views
Liquid shield for spacecraft? [closed]
Initially this question was going to be on how to improve the Parker Solar Probe shield. While time passed I saw other possibilities for using this method for active shielding.
Could a shield heated ...
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1answer
224 views
Parker Solar probe jumping through fire?
Is the principle of passing close the Sun with the Parker Solar probe the same as if you pass your hand over a candle flame fast enough you won't get burned?
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1answer
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Could we possibly see the shadow offset from Parker Solar probe on Earth?
The closer an object to the source of light, the larger the shadow it casts.
Parker Solar probe would fly within 3.7 million miles (6 million kilometers) of the sun's surface. It sounds quite far ...
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0answers
170 views
Could the sun be used as a super-amplifier for SETI transmissions? [closed]
I just want to know if there is any scientific merit to this, the premise of Cixen Liu's novel, "The Three-Body Problem". English translation published in 2016.
See also Tor.com: Cixin Liu’s Award-...
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2answers
131 views
How would a Jupiter flyby have helped to get to the Sun? Why was it later ruled out?
The quote below surprised me. What were the orbital mechanical details of using a Jupiter flyby to get a probe from Earth so close to the Sun? Was a "U-turn" possible; single flyby of Jupiter into a ...
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1answer
294 views
Parker Solar probe's heat survival - Heat vs Temperature
This is not about about heat shields, materials, coolant, etc.
I am not quite not getting the science that explains the Heat Vs Temperature, which is how the Parker probe is going to survive the ...
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2answers
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Can the Sun's magnetic field be used to propel a solar satellite?
Can diamagnetic materials or a diamagnetic devise be used to propel using the magnetic field of the Sun in a solar polar magnetic assisted slingshot?
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0answers
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What is the Lux value of the Sun and Earth in Low Earth Orbit (altitude=400 km)?
I'm the Attitude Control System team lead on a cube satellite project, and we're trying to use cheap lux sensors to determine the body sun vector (vector adding the lux from each sensor). I want to ...
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3answers
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What would happen if a satellite took a direct hit from a coronal mass ejection (CME)?
I was wondering what would happen if the average satellite were hit by an average CME. According to wikipedia the average velocity of a CME is 20 to 3,200 km/s. In addition to this it's super-heated, ...
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3answers
295 views
Is a sun-blocking orbit possible?
Is it possible for an orbital "sun shade satellite" to have a geosynchronous equatorial orbit such that it is in an approximately straight line between the Sun and a fixed point on the Earth's ...
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1answer
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Could a spacecraft be propelled by the deflection of a very high number of charged particles?
I am wondering if a spacecraft could be propelled through interplanetary space via the deflection and/or displacement of a very high number of charged particles contained within the Sun's solar wind.
...
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1answer
92 views
Is communication from a spacecraft in SEL1 disturbed by the Sun?
A spacecraft at the Sun Earth Lagrange point one (1% of an AU, or one Solar diameter, from Earth towards the Sun) would have the Sun as its background. Is the Sun emitting strongly enough at ...
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3answers
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Why does the ISS need thermal blankets if the Sun is hot?
If space is cold at 2.7 Kelvin and heat can't escape in a vacuum then why is the ISS wrapped in space blankets if the sun is hot?
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2answers
227 views
How can a solar storm be predicted?
Satellites like DSCOVR are used to predict solar storms.
How does that work? If the satellite is orbiting L1 and "watches" the sun, how can the signal be back on earth before a storm arrives?
How ...
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0answers
79 views
What's the rationale behind the false colours in solar observation photographs? [closed]
Images from SOHO, SDO and other sun observatories are often coloured differently for different wavelengths or temperatures:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/science/Sun-Wavelength-Chart....
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1answer
142 views
Could a probe fly through the Sun's transition zone between chromosphere and corona?
I wonder if a cryogenically cooled probe could fly very fast tangentially pass the Sun and through its transition zone where the temperature drops to below 6 000 K, from millions in the corona. What ...
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2answers
307 views
Which spacecraft will be the first for which the Sun would become the second brightest object in the sky?
Which spacecraft will be the first for which the Sun would become the second brightest object in the sky?
When that will happen and how far?
What would be the most efficient direction to fly in ...
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1answer
169 views
Does Sunlight have a range? [closed]
If you switch on a lightbulb in a room its light has a visible range. So how about Sunlight? Does it light more on Mercury and less on Pluto? And what about planets that are not in the Solar System?
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1answer
367 views
What are these dark lines in IRIS images of the sun?
Dark, narrow, straight lines move around within images from Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) in such a way that they appear intentional and systematic, and not just some imaging artifact ...
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2answers
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Most distant photo of the sun?
What is the most distant photo taken of our sun? I am guessing it may be from Voyager 1, but can't find an actual photo anywhere.
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1answer
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Need help simulating solar limb darkening
edit: At the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) website, I just found the image sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/latest/latest_1024_HMIIC.jpg. The color gradient of the limb darkening seems very similar to ...
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2answers
405 views
What is this white dot and strange line in SOHO image?
In the SOHO images for today, there was a white dot at the bottom right of the image. There is also a strange white line parallel to the top and bottom of the image that crosses most of the image. ...
5
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1answer
199 views
What are these echo-like artifacts in some SDO images?
I was looking at the Galleries in the NASA Scientific Visualization Studio and in the banner they show an image from SDO - the Solar Dynamics Observatory. I've posted it below along with a cropped, ...
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2answers
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Is this really an image of the sun, or an “artist's conception”?
I just saw this image in this article in Phys.org, which is generally a great source of physics news. Normally I would expect them to post real images, or if they use artist's conceptions, they would ...
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2answers
775 views
Nuking the Sun?
We know that according to Wikipedia on Nuclear fusion:
The Sun is a main-sequence star, and thus generates its energy by nuclear fusion of hydrogen nuclei into helium. In its core, the Sun fuses ...
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5answers
691 views
Can you reach the Sun by only thrusting horizontally?
Suppose you have a hypothetical spacecraft launched from Earth.
When it escapes from Earth's gravity it will still be orbiting the sun at roughly the same velocity as the earth, approximately 30km/...
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1answer
2k views
Have any of the rovers ever recorded a solar eclipse on Mars?
I've heard a rumor that Curiosity rover sent a recording about Phobos covering the Sun on the Martian sky. Did it happen? If yes, how frequently could such things be recorded?
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1answer
488 views
Which of the planets could we detect today from just the movements of the sun?
Assume that despite our current level of space exploration and technology, we have somehow missed the existence of the other planets in our solar system.
We have developed various methods of ...
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3answers
594 views
Will or could the Parker Solar Probe do science at Venus?
Solar Probe Plus will flyby Venus 7 times(!) during 6 years in order to enter its "low" Solar orbit. Will it carry any instrument useful for studying Venus, for example seasonal changes? Would its ...
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1answer
328 views
Will New Horizons, Voyager or any other space craft survive the death of the sun?
After its mission, New Horizons will be destined to travel perpetually forever. I wonder though how far it will be when the sun explodes. Will it be far enough away that when this happens, billions of ...
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1answer
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How are solar panels protected from the Sun?
In 2003, JAXA sent a probe, Hayabusa, to an asteroid named Itokawa. On the way to the asteroid, there was a large solar flare which damaged the probe's solar cells. I've been searching through the ...
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0answers
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How do solar flares and coronal mass ejections create proton storms?
Wikipedia has this to say about solar particle events:
A solar particle event (SPE), or "proton storm," occurs when particles
(mostly protons) emitted by the Sun become accelerated to very high
...
5
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1answer
336 views
Speed of solar coronal mass ejection
From this video, it appears that material is being flung outward from the limb of the Sun at pretty high speed. Considering that the Sun is some 1.4 million km in diameter, and at least one band seems ...
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1answer
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Does the Sun actually move on its own, or does it move with the Solar system? [closed]
I'm curious, does the Sun actually move? The concept behind the question is, if you wear a shirt and you move, does the shirt actually move? Like the Solar system orbits around the Milky Way, but does ...
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4answers
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Could an Apollo crew have been killed by Solar radiation?
The Sun throws lots of high speed protons around. Especially during its sudden and short intensive "events". Much of that is blocked by Earth's magnetosphere and atmosphere. But astronauts work ...
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1answer
129 views
Why does TRIAD need sun vectors and magnetic field vector?
I am an electronic engineer trying to dive in space engineering.
To develop an ADCS system, one of the most famous and easy algorithms is TRIAD.
Why does this algorithm need the sun and the ...
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1answer
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What is the difference between mean anomaly and mean longitude?
I am an engineer who is in charge of writing some software which makes use of those two elements. But I am a bit confused, both seem to be almost the same although there is a small difference, which ...
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2answers
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How was this image of the sun taken and what does it show?
In the last few years amazing images of the sun have been around. They are from the Solar Dynamics Observatory's AIA instrument. The one below shows super-hot iron atoms. So, am I looking at field ...
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3answers
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Would measuring the Infrared radiation output of the sun be difficult, due to the output of other sources (Earth) interfering with the results?
If, hypothetically, there was to be an experiment that would look for solar activity induced increases in infrared radiation on the International Space Station, would the infrared radiation produced ...
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2answers
2k views
Is it possible to orbit around the Sun within a “safe temperature zone”?
The closer a body is to the Sun, the warmer it becomes.
Is it possible to find a certain trajectory around either the Sun or any star, on which the temperature is constantly between, for example, 20 ...
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3answers
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What are the problems with using the sun for Oberth maneuvers?
Presumably, it has something to do with the sun being rather hot. All the same, are there any potential cases with current technology where swinging close by the sun would be worth the shielding for ...
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4answers
478 views
Is there a means to communicate with robots on/around Mars whilst the Sun is between Mars & Earth?
A brief follow-up to What will MOM do when Earth isn't looking?
As already premised in the referenced question; terrestrial artifacts on/around Mars encounter a communications blackout every 26 ...
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3answers
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Is it possible to stand still in space?
I am wondering to know if it's possible to stand still (no movement at all with respect to the Sun) in space.
Can it be possible? I am thinking that when we move upwards from Earth's surface an ...
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1answer
162 views
Is there any wavelength at which the Sun is both transparent to and quiet of electromagnetic radiation?
Expanding a bit on this question: Is it possible to communicate in space while the sun is between parties?
Is there any wavelength usable by our presently available technologies at which the Sun is ...
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2answers
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Have any spacecraft been launched or proposed to make a survivable close encounter with the Sun?
Have any spacecraft been either launched or proposed which involve a survivable close encounter with the Sun? This would include solar observation missions as well as any missions designed to make a ...
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2answers
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Does NASA have spacecraft that are specifically made for orbiting around the Sun?
Does NASA have projects with spacecraft which are specifically made for orbiting somewhere around the Sun? If yes, what can they be used for?
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1answer
262 views
What is the diameter of magnetopause 1.5 millions kilometers behind the Earth?
Earth has strong magnetic field, which changes concentration of charged particles from Sun near the planet. There is rather safe torus near the Earth (LEO non-polar orbits), and also there is long ...
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2answers
964 views
How can any probe be safe at one million degree Centigrade temperature?
Even after going straight inside the sun's corona, how can Solar Probe Plus be safe at the one million degree Centigrade temperature of the sun's corona ?
