Posted on 10/30/2018 1:08:09 PM PDT by Gamecock
At about 10:54 p.m. EDT, Parker Solar Probe surpassed 153,454 miles per hour — as calculated by the mission team — making it the fastest-ever human-made object relative to the Sun. This breaks the record set by the German-American Helios 2 mission in April 1976.
Parker Solar Probe will repeatedly break its own records, achieving a top speed of about 430,000 miles per hour in 2024.
Because it’s falling down toward something very, very big?
And never got out of second gear ...
Not sure what this means, given that each of us sitting at desktops everywhere are also moving in the ballpark of 1.3 million miles an hour (I think that is relative to the local cluster).
Since the earth is moving WRT the Sun, that speed could be relative to the Earth or to the Sun, or perhaps to Venus which Parker Solar is orbiting.
So, Parker Solar’s speed could be added/subtracted/a-mixture to that 1.3 million.
430,000 miles per hour in 2024.
.064% speed of light 119.4 miles per second
*ping*
I c what you did there...
Yeah, but will it still be "alive" by then?
Yes, it is being pulled further into the sun's gravity well. There's a very high dV requirement for inner system travel, because despite the speed gained by falling toward the sun, the object eventually needs to slow down or risk being flung out of the solar system. They are using several orbital braking maneuvers around Venus and Mars, IIRC.
*Mercury
“430,000 miles per hour in 2024”
at which point it destroys itself by crashing into a NEO giving it just enough of a push to send the big meteor into the earth.
153,000 mph?
Is it flying with the wind, or against it?
Thanks fieldmarshaldj.
As it is traveling towards the Sun it is going against the outgoing solar wind.
CGI
Re: “As it is traveling towards the Sun it is going against the outgoing solar wind.”
Yes - I was actually trying to make a joke, as in “atmospheric wind.”
That does raise an interesting question.
Does particle-free radiant energy carry a physical force, or does it just convey heat energy?
And, in case you have not seen this illustration, NASA has
a daily chart for Parker’s position and trajectory, plus it’s vital stats.
http://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/The-Mission/index.php#Where-Is-PSP
Yes, see Radiation Pressure.
I have always struggled with the basic concepts of physics, probably because they have no visible reference points.
The photon - a massless particle that can somehow acquire momentum and turns into a wave whenever it is convenient for the mathematics.
Hard to believe we have literally created the modern world based on ideas like that.
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