NASA’s new spacecraft will travel within 26 MILES of the sun in order to gather data that will help scientist better predict solar storms

Dailymail.com ^ | 01/28/2020 | Stacy Liberatore

[BenLurkin]

In collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), the team is launching the Solar Orbiter that will use Venus's and Earth's gravity to swing itself out of the ecliptic plane — the area of space aligned with the sun's equator, where all planets orbit.

From this position, the craft will feast its eyes on the first-ever look of the massive yellow dwarf star, which will provide scientists with better data to predict solar storms more accurately.

Solar Orbiter is equipped with a custom-designed titanium heat shield coated with a specific phosphate that withstands temperatures over 900 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing it to get within 26 miles of the blazing sun.

[Fresh Wind]

26 miles is well withing the sun’s corona.

It runs the risk of being infected with a corona virus.

[PIF]

The way this article is written one would imagine they are talking about another solar system, for instance, who describes the sun as “the massive yellow dwarf star”? Who says the ‘first-ever look’ ... Has no one ever seen the sun before? What cave does the author live in?

[PIF]

26,000,000 miles is far short of the 4,000,000 miles that the Parker Solar Probe currently orbits the sun. So to this new probe: big whoop.

[oldvirginian]

Given that there is no way to calculate the distance from the boiling bubbling surface of the sun to begin with, I was only off by 1,000,000 miles +/- a mile or two.
Still closer than the over paid writer that started this whole thing off.

[trebb]

What constitutes 26 miles from a “convulsing” surface?

[TheRake]

I hope they go at night when it is not so hot.

LOL!!!! Did Don Lemon say that?

[ZinGirl]

I would still need a light sweater

[Red Badger]

26 miles?

That would be a neat trick....................

[Red Badger]

Should have called it Icarus...................

[Red Badger]

http://www.briangreene.org/icarus-at-the-edge-of-time/

[Hot Tabasco]

Hey Ben, that’s supposed to be 26 million miles, not 26 miles.....LOL!

[Reily]

What’s a million or so among friends and an infinite universe?

[Hot Tabasco]

more reliable than the Daily Mail — it’s a bit over 26 MILLION miles, not 26 miles.

The daily mail is correct, the poster is not........sheesh!

[Conan the Librarian]

‘Massive Yellow Dwarf Star’? Is that like Jumbo Shrimp?

Should be called Icarus, of course.

As for the distance, at 26 million, there isn’t much of an atmosphere of the Sun at that range,so, the particles will be VERY hot, there just won’t be a lot of them.

[HeadOn]

AH - NO.

You can get 900F in your backyard with torches or welders.

Try over 9000F that close to the sun. Some ignorant “journalist” is leaving out some zeroes somewhere. Took me 15 seconds to check that temp in Google. Somebody needs to be slapped on the hand.

[zeugma]

Ah, thank you. I’m no astrophysicist, but my gut instinct when I read this was that, 26 miles out from the sun, withstanding “temperatures over 900 degrees Fahrenheit” is a woefully inadequate joke.

Good instinct. At that distance the corona is about a million degrees C. Much hotter than the surface of the sun itself.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Twenty-six miles across the sea
Santa Catalina is a-waitin' for me...

[dfwgator]

It’s twenty five miles from home
Girl, my feet are hurting mighty bad

[SunkenCiv]

Hey, they didn’t say it was comin’ back... ;^)

[Buckeye McFrog]

25 miles from the surface of the sun? I should think so.