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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

Posted on 01/28/2020 5:30:57 PM PST by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; icarus; polarorbit; science; solarorbiter; sun
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To: BenLurkin

What is 26 miles even? There is no distinct border of the sun. It undulates and seethes like a boiling pot.

The number is most likely to be 26 MILLION miles. At 26 miles, it’s a fair bit hotter than 900 degrees. The temperature is around 10,000 degrees at that range.


21 posted on 01/28/2020 5:42:57 PM PST by Malsua
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To: dragnet2

I hope it works, but I have great respect for how hot it must be 26 miles from the surface of Sol.


22 posted on 01/28/2020 5:43:20 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Democrats only believe in democracy when they win the election.)
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To: BenLurkin

Gee, you mean they couldn’t buy a titanium heat shield for a solar observatory satellite off the shelf? Who knew?


23 posted on 01/28/2020 5:43:54 PM PST by cyclotic (Democrats must be politically eviscerated, disemboweled and demolished.)
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To: BenLurkin

So it is somehow going to be going fast enough to just buzz the Sun, and not get pulled in by it’s massive gravitational pull?


24 posted on 01/28/2020 5:44:06 PM PST by Zuriel (Acts 2:38,39....Do you believe it?)
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To: BenLurkin

There is no way it can get 26 miles from the sun without falling into the sun. I don’t think.


25 posted on 01/28/2020 5:44:29 PM PST by DouglasKC
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To: BenLurkin

Your gonna’ get something only 26M away without it melting? Really?


26 posted on 01/28/2020 5:44:52 PM PST by Bullish (Covfefe Happens)
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To: BenLurkin

Sounds incorrect.


27 posted on 01/28/2020 5:45:06 PM PST by Beowulf9
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To: Campion

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.


28 posted on 01/28/2020 5:45:17 PM PST by irishjuggler
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To: Campion

That sounds a whole lot more like it, the Mail was just a tad off.


29 posted on 01/28/2020 5:48:33 PM PST by jazusamo (Have You Donated to Keep Free Republic Up and Running?)
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To: BenLurkin
It is 26 million miles/ 42 million km on closest approach, not 26 miles.

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter
https://www.space.com/solar-orbiter-mission-sun-poles.html

30 posted on 01/28/2020 5:48:38 PM PST by Widget Jr
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To: Blood of Tyrants

From NASA: “Over the mission’s seven year lifetime, Solar Orbiter will reach an inclination of 24 degrees above the Sun’s equator, increasing to 33 degrees with an additional three years of extended mission operations. At closest approach the spacecraft will pass within 26 MILLION MILES of the Sun.”

It’s okay tho: it’s the Daily Mail so we’re lucky it didn’t attribute the mission to Khloe Kardashian’s butt or Brad Pitt’s abs.


31 posted on 01/28/2020 5:48:53 PM PST by Retrofitted
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To: Widget Jr

Probably just a minor rounding error.


32 posted on 01/28/2020 5:52:47 PM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: SkyDancer

“ The heat must be incredible.”

It’s not so bad in winter.

Make sure to use sunscreen. SPF 10,000,000


33 posted on 01/28/2020 5:56:08 PM PST by Meatspace
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To: PghBaldy

“allowing it to get within 26 miles of the blazing sun.”

Total crap reporting by an reporter most ignorant of science.

The atmosphere of the sun extends thousands of miles. If one was within 26 miles of the surface of the sun atmospheric drag would destroy the satellite as it would then descend into the sun long before it was 26 miles from the surface. The surface of the sun is a debate. What is the surface and what is atmosphere? Much like Jupiter, a gas giant as is our sun.

I would be so bold as to say the sun had no definitive surface. It is a gas giant that from its core of incredible density slowly decreases in density with distance from the core until it is really space with little influence by the sun relative to density. What we see when looking at the sun via telescopes is the ionized lower atmosphere surrounding the sun. To the layman this is the surface of the sun. It is not. There is no definitive surface of the sun.

I hate ignorant reporters.


34 posted on 01/28/2020 5:56:09 PM PST by cpdiii ( canecutter, deckhand, roughneck, geologist, pilot, pharmacist THE CONSTITUTION IS WORTH DYING FOR)
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To: jazusamo

They were only off by 26,999,974 miles. New math don’tcha know.
Give us MORE!
Give us MORE!
COMMIECORE!


35 posted on 01/28/2020 6:02:18 PM PST by oldvirginian (I know not what course others may take but as for me Give me Liberty or give me death)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

More fake news caught by an observant reader.


36 posted on 01/28/2020 6:04:05 PM PST by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: Meatspace

LOL


37 posted on 01/28/2020 6:04:09 PM PST by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
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To: Meatspace

“ The heat must be incredible.”

It’s not so bad in winter.

Make sure to use sunscreen. SPF 10,000,000

And at night just to be safe. I asked AOC.


38 posted on 01/28/2020 6:05:31 PM PST by bytesmith
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
how hot it must be 26 miles from the surface of Sol...

Actually, the Sun is cooler at the "surface" compared to the Corona, thousands of miles above.

39 posted on 01/28/2020 6:08:18 PM PST by C210N
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The sun will consider this AN ATTACK. Solar flares for a hundred years I predict.


40 posted on 01/28/2020 6:08:47 PM PST by George from New England (escaped CT in 2006, now living north of Tampa)
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