Will somebody please tip off NASA - well y'all are nearer than I am? - that the 'probe' will be a blob of molten metal long before it reaches the sun? Ithangyiow. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/scien...lar-probe-how-nasa-is-trying-to-touch-the-sun
NASA's PR wing likes to make catchy headlines to grab the attention of the public about their projects. Having read countless posts about this on other forums it's pretty clear that A LOT of people actually think NASA is trying to launch a probe to literally touch the Sun, as in like the Photosphere part lol. NASA is going to "touch" the Sun by having Parker do a series of flybys around 6 million km's away from the actual "Sun". Which on cosmic scales is basically like touching something. Unfortunately no NASA isn't going to throw the probe into the Sun and see what happens LOL. Well at least that's not the mission, they'll probably do that at the end of the mission and see how close they can get before the thing disintegrates which likely won't be much closer than they are planning on getting. The Sun is pretty hot... I'll admit even I said "wtf" when I first read about this project years ago. They've been using that "touch the Sun" tagline since the beginning.
Will someone please tell cerebus to actually read his own links (including video) before spewing nonsense and making a fool of himself?
It will be in an orbit 4 million miles away and there is a special heat shield designed to withstand the estimate 1500 degree temperature. Should be an interesting experiment and gather a lot of useful data about solar bombardment. It will also be the fastest manmade piece of equipment in history traveling at an estimated 430,000 mph. Nothing has ever gone that fast before.
It is actually possible to enter the sun's outer edge. The temperature may be very hot, but the gas is a low enough density that it doesn't actually contain much heat. The real issue is the intense light and thermal radiation that heat up the probe.
Yes, I think the next fastest man made object was the Juno probe of Jupiter that didn't go half that fast!
Its pretty mind boggling to get an object up to that speed, I mean something solid and not like a laser or particle. Now compare that to the speed of light (our ultimate goal) which is around 670 million mph and you can see how far we have to go. Obviously our current technology will never be capable of reaching that, we need new inventions or to find some way to use natural existing things in space to push us up there. You aren't going to do it with a rocket.
Physics says we aren't going to do it, period. Plus, even if we could go the speed of light (which we can't) it would still take an amazingly long time. The nearest star to the sun would take more than 4 years travel time at the speed of light - plus, it would take time to speed up and slow down. That star has no planets of interest, by the way.
Once we can break the speed of light we will be able to multiply it. Its only impossible because of the physics we currently understand. We haven't figured it out yet but we will. Only two things would prevent us from doing it, according to physics. Increasing mass with speed and time fluctuations. Physics doesn't say its impossible, it says we must solve those two problem before it is possible. Plenty of things can go faster than the speed of light so it is possible to attain that. And aliens have figured it out so there is that.
You just named two reasons physics says we won't ever get to the speed of light! Then you suggested we will get to light speed !!?? Sorry. Physics doesn't work that way. And no, there is no evidence that aliens exist, let alone that they can travel at light speed.
We haven't even begun to understand physics, I would refer you to the whole Quantum theory field. Its not fake you know. And yes, there is plenty of evidence for aliens and they got here somehow. Recently there were new photographs declassified after much pressure and here is one from Roswell. Does that look like a weather balloon to you?
First of all, anything not in a vacuum. The theory or relativity only applies to things in a vacuum. Figure out that problem and the universe is ours. The big thing moving faster than the speed of light is the expansion of the universe and this has been scientifically proven. If you wave a flashlight across the night sky that beam will pass the speed of light, again, proven. Quantum entanglement is another. Another way to move anything faster than light is to compress the space in front of you while increasing it behind you. Speed would be limitless at that point, unless you run into something and once again, we just haven't figured out how yet but we have proven its possible.
Well that's sort of the problem. The Laws of Physics apply within the Universe but not TO the Universe. The Universe itself is expanding faster than the speed of light but the matter within the Universe isn't. That's why we have an observable universe and a light horizon. I've read plenty of theories about FTL travel as far as compressing space in front of you etc. That's how Star Trek ships work I think as well as the Alcubierre Drive. Problem with the Alcubierre Drive is that even as a theoretical propulsion system they say it requires an energy source equating to the Sun's energy output throughout it's entire life cycle to work. Even if something like that could be shown to "work", figuring out how to power it would obviously be pretty tricky.
Actually you are incorrect. There are stars being formed now that we will never see the light from because their light is moving faster away from us then it travels. As for Star Trek, you are correct, we have no way to power a drive system like that yet but we will one day. We will also figure out the other barriers with relativity and conquer it. Remember that everything was impossible until someone invented it.
[ No, the theory of relativity applies to everything in the entire universe. EVERYTHING. Faster than light travel in frames that aren't accelerated is covered by the special theory of relativity. Expansion of space/time is covered by the general theory of relativity. It comes in two parts. No. That's nonsense you read somewhere. That experiment doesn't involve in anything moving from the left most point in your wave to the right most point - other than the flashlight itself. So, no object with mass moved faster than the speed of light in that experiment. Plus, light didn't travel faster than the speed of light, either. No, you are misinterpreting this, too. In this case, nothing of mass traveled faster than the speed of light. There is no idea of how space could be compressed, let alone there being such a theory. This is the same thing as wormholes in that it's great sci-fi, but simply doesn't exist. The theory of relativity is real, live scientific theory. You can't blow away something that serious by waving your flashlight.
The enthusiast half of me agrees with you. The amateur astrophysics/astronomy nerd side of me does not. I get it, throughout human history we've always thought certain things were impossible. "Scientists" of days past said that crossing the sound barrier was impossible too. However what we have today is something that our ancestors didn't have, an understanding of physics. If humans had our current understanding of physics yet were still unable to actually create machines to break the sound barrier then no reputable scientist would say that such a feat was impossible. Even though we couldn't build machines to actually do it, physics says it can easily be done and anybody who understood physics would agree. FTL travel doesn't work that way. There's nothing in physics that says you can't break the sound barrier. I understand where you are coming from, it's the same conclusion that most people have based on just looking at history. "We said we couldn't fly, look at us now. We said we couldn't break the sound barrier, look at us now. We said people couldn't survive in space, look at us now. Etc" But once one gains even a novice understanding of physics you quickly realize why that same "rational" pattern doesn't work when talking about FTL. It SEEMS like it would work because we humans always do what we used to think was impossible, but it doesn't actually work that way. Who knows? We could be wrong. There could be intelligent civilizations all over the place zipping around the Milky Way like Star Trek and leaving the funny looking Earth aliens alone because they are too primitive to contact. Or there could be highly advanced civilizations all over the galaxy who are all stuck on their own little islands because nobody can actually break the speed of light and wormholes aren't real. Or we could be a complete freak of nature in the cosmos who are literally alone in the entire Universe sitting here on this random planet. Nobody knows, I personally think it's the second one. I believe there are other life forms in the Milky Way, perhaps even intelligent ones, but we are all just stuck in our own star systems because physics has no bias. Hell there could be a full blown Type II civilization in our own spiral arm of the Milky Way who has a Dyson Sphere around it's star but are still unable to actually get any farther away from their own solar system than we can because they too are governed by the laws of physics.
The universe is a vacuum however its theorized that their are other dimensions parallel to it or there may be a way to remove that vacuum effect. Irrelevant, the beam still returns faster than the speed of light, that is factual and you can parse it any way you like but you can't change the result. Correct but you should add the quantifier, "yet". to that. The important part is that we have proven that speed faster than light is indeed possible. And realize that the universe is expanding faster than the speed of light and the universe contains mass. There are suns we will never see the light from because they are moving faster away then light travels and those suns have mass. This goes back to the flashlight experiment, just because it doesn't fit your view of physics doesn't mean it isn't actually happening, it means you need to increase your understanding. And actually there are theories of going faster than the speed of light. The Alcubierre drive being one of them.
Again, yes the universe is larger than the observable universe. Yes, the observable universe is a shrinking percent of the total universe, and over a stupendously large distance that means objects are receding faster than the speed of light. BUT, that's covered by the general theory of relativity - the theory as it includes accelerated frames of reference. The part of relativity theory that applies to nearby objects ignores the expansion of the universe, as it is important over such vast distances that it may be discounted. For doing stuff like traveling to a star in our galaxy, the expansion of the universe may be ignored. That rememberance is fine. But, the catch is that's NOT what you want people to think when they hear that. What YOU want people to THINK is some sort of nonsense about everything being possible to invent. And, that is obvious nonsense - especially when you propose breaking immutable laws of physics.
I will just respond with this, coming from the man you all are saying faster than the speed of light is impossible. “There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.”-- Einstein.