4 ms·
Shouldn't there be some sort of "lagrange-like" point where the sun's gravitational pull balances out the push of the solar wind?
by samsari 8y ago
Shouldn't there be some sort of "lagrange-like" point where the sun's gravitational pull balances out the push of the solar wind?
- robkop 8y agoNot sure if such a balance exists for external bodies but there does exist a limit very similar that constrains the maximum size of a star [1]. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_luminosity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_luminosity
- stult 8y agoNo, or at least not any stable such point, because the solar wind is not constant. Plus it is orders of magnitude less powerful than the sun's gravity. It's only usable (in theory) for navigation because any ship is already in orbit around the sun and doesn't need to "cancel out" gravity in the sense that wings provide lift to an airplane or a rocket achieves orbit from the ground, but rather it needs to be able to gently and continuously nudge itself into higher or lower orbits.