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That's kinda not how orbits work. First, to get to the sun, you have to escape Earth's gravity, which takes a lot of power. Once you've done so, the sun is actu
by lorenzhs 7y ago
That's kinda not how orbits work. First, to get to the sun, you have to escape Earth's gravity, which takes a lot of power. Once you've done so, the sun is actually one of the hardest places to go. It's easier to leave the solar system altogether than to drop into the sun.
- Dylan16807 7y agoDepends on how long you're willing to wait. In rough rounded numbers: Earth's velocity around the sun is 30km/s. To directly slow down enough to hit the sun, you need to remove 20km/s. To leave the solar system you need an extra 10km/s. But if you almost leave the solar system, and wait for the very peak of your orbit, then you'll be going so slowly that you can turn it into a pure dive into the center of the sun with almost zero thrust. So this plan needs slightly less thrust than escaping entirely. It will just take decades to centuries.
- Aperocky 7y ago> hardest The best way to end up as a sun meteor is to boost the orbit to Jupiter and let a flyby of Jupiter kill the remaining horizontal velocity.