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Last Post 3/22/2013 10:50 AM by Yan Li

Sun

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Anonymous

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3/22/2013 8:17 AM
My name is Conner. My question is this. How close can we get to the sun without burning out. For future reference. thanksyou!!!

Tags: sun, glow, fat, big, blubbber, orange

Terry Kucera

Basic Member

Posts:328

3/22/2013 10:44 AM
Hi Conner, I guess that depends on who "we" is and how well protected you want to be. It all depends a lot on how well shielded you are. I am not sure what would be needed for a human to get close to the Sun. NASA is currently working on a mission that would get a spacecraft (Solar Probe) with scientific instruments within 3.7 million miles of the Sun’s surface. A million miles sounds like a lot, but the Earth is over 90 million miles from the Sun so it is a lot closer than we are used to. Protecting the scientific instruments when the spacecraft gets that close is a challenge. A neat example of something coming close to the Sun and surviving is Comet Lovejoy. In late 2011 it came within 120,000 km (72,000 miles) of the Sun's surface and survived! See http://www.nasa.gov/missi...s/comet-lovejoy.html It was a tough ride, though, and I would not have wanted to be on that comet! Terry

Yan Li

New Member

Posts:55

3/22/2013 10:50 AM
Hi Conner, Are you planning a trip to the Sun in the future :) ? I guess it depends what material you are talking about. For human body, it is not only a problem of temperature. Outside of the Earth's atomsphere, we have not enough oxgen, and we cannot withstand the radiation. So we are pretty useless without the protection of the atomsphere. But a NASA satellite called Solar Probe will be traveling towards the Sun in several years and will get as close as 8.5 solar radii, or about 6,000,000 km (3,700,000 mi).