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how would this sink differ from using the sun as /dev/null - other then that you might disrupt potential stellar consciousness?
by fsiefken 7y ago
how would this sink differ from using the sun as /dev/null - other then that you might disrupt potential stellar consciousness?
- henearkr 7y agoAgreed. Well, Sol consciousness is already disturbed by occasional comets, isn't it? :) The use as an energy source, however, would even outlast the lifetime of the Sun as a star.
- wtallis 7y agoIt takes substantially more delta V to send a rocket into the sun than to send it out of the solar system entirely. Getting a rocket to a particular object in the outer solar system may take more delta V than either of those options unless you're really patient.
- dr_dshiv 7y agoI don't have an intuition for why it is harder to go to the sun than leave the solar system. How do you think about that?
- RandomGenerated 7y agoSolar winds
- bogcotton 7y agoIn order to get to the Sun rather than just speed past it, you have to decrease your velocity dramatically. When you're in a stable orbit, you are actually spinning around the sun at a huge pace. To gain enough velocity to leave the solar system, you have to increase that pace by an amount that is less than the pace you already have. As a terrible analogy, it takes less energy to overtake a car that is travelling in front of you at a higher speed than it does to slow yourself to a complete stop.
- ncmncm 7y agoNot correct. An extremely eccentric orbit has the same energy as some circular orbit. All you need is for the aphelion to be well inside the sun itself, and the sun will take care of turning the energy into raw heat.
- henearkr 7y agoEscape the huge Sun's gravity well, or only escape Earth's gravity well (but stay in Sun's well).
- Atrus6 7y agoUsing dummy numbers. But, lets say you need to be going 100mph to escape the suns gravity. The Earth is moving around the sun at 75mph. So you only need to speed up 25mph to leave. But to fall to the sun, you need to slow down 75mph. And speeding up and slowing down in space take the same amount of energy.
- dr_dshiv 7y agoTHANKS! I got it now :)
- theelous3 7y agoBut why do we have to slow down? Can't we aim at sol, such that our velocity doesn't matter?
- mnw21cam 7y agoThat's how an orbit works. If you think about a low orbit around the Earth, you are constantly falling towards Earth and missing, because you are going so fast around it. Likewise, the Earth is constantly falling towards the Sun, but because it is going sideways so fast it keeps going around instead. You say "aim towards sol" - but in order to do that you effectively need to stop going sideways. Once you have done that, it doesn't matter whether or not you are also travelling towards the Sun - you will be soon. That's what we mean when we say that in order to hit the Sun you need to slow down.
- scott_s 7y agoGreat explanation. I think many people have the wrong default intuition for what an orbit is. I don't think they realize that it means going so fast that you fall perpetually around an object rather than just eventually hitting the object.
- mirimir 7y agoStephenson has a great explanation of orbital mechanics in Anathem. Also in Seveneves, but not as detailed, as I recall.
- lmilcin 7y agoThat's obviously false. If you send a rocket outside solar system (as in giving it exactly the escape velocity) then you just wait until it's velocity with respect to sun drops close to zero and then just nudge it back directly at the sun. This takes a lot of time of course, but it does not require you more energy than what is required to leave solar system. I am only picking at you because you mentioned a rocket. If you said "shoot it to burn in sun" then you would be (mostly) right.