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 ...
Same distance as Santa Catalina.
To keep from burning up, it’ll go there at night.
Even at 26 million miles...
Your post gave me reason to pull this up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kesio4k-dMU
Somehow, playing it, that tune then seemed appropriate as a requiem for the 9 people on Kobe Bryant’s helicopter, and most anyone else who’s passed in an aircraft that’s come down, too.
(Sorry to wander OT!)
Goes at night!
This
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_(2007_film)
A scientifically ignorant about the sun film. Earth expedition to turn the sun back on with a bunch of H bombs. However if you can get past that (Its hard but I managed!) Its a good psychological thriller!
Me thinks the headline means 26 MILLION miles, not 26 miles.
The article at the link says 26 million miles.
I don’t see how any man made object can survive a 26 mile brush with the sun. Twenty-six thousand miles, perhaps.
Wrong turn at Albuquerque. It happens.
Nuclear fusion is in the millions of degrees. 900 is for burnt toast
Thanks. I had to look it up for reference - the moon is about 240,000 miles from the earth. Mars is 184 million miles from earth.
That’s 26 million miles, not 26 miles, for crying out loud. Please proofread your headlines, people.
Oh, and Mercury is 33.5 million miles from the sun.
Only two space craft have explored Mercury.
Well, the media never were very good with space and numbers.
I took a before and after screenshot.
Yea, I’m thinking the same thing....the figures can’t be right.
Did they name the spacecraft “Icarus”?
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