Fastest Object Ever Made By Humans Continues Circling the Sun, 500x Faster Than Sound (sciencealert.com) 61
An anonymous reader shared this report from ScienceAlert:
NASA's Parker Solar Probe, tasked with taking a close-up look at the Sun's outer corona, has just equalled the record for the fastest-moving human-made object ever.
The previous record holder? The Parker Solar Probe, again.
The probe was recorded traveling at 635,266 kilometers (394,736 miles) per hour on June 29, the second time it's reached that speed since it launched in 2018. We're talking around 500 times faster than the speed of sound here.
It's on course to get even faster too, with a top speed of around 692,000 kph (430,000 mph) expected when it makes its closest approach to the Sun in 2025.
It's the probe's 20th approach to the sun, according to the article, with the probe using Venus "to create a sort of gravity-powered slingshot," according to the article. (NASA has created a nice interactive 3D model of the probe...)
Besides collecting particle samples in 2021, "The probe is eventually going to get nice and close to the swirling mass of ultra-hot plasma surrounding the Sun, and take a wealth of different measurements to help improve our scientific understanding of it."
It's the probe's 20th approach to the sun, according to the article, with the probe using Venus "to create a sort of gravity-powered slingshot," according to the article. (NASA has created a nice interactive 3D model of the probe...)
Besides collecting particle samples in 2021, "The probe is eventually going to get nice and close to the swirling mass of ultra-hot plasma surrounding the Sun, and take a wealth of different measurements to help improve our scientific understanding of it."
Re: How many blue whales per second is that? (Score:3)
About 0.000596 c
Re: How many blue whales per second is that? (Score:2)
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It's about
5 million hotdogs per fortnite, or
750,000 freedom eagles per NASCAR race, or
127,000 AR-15s laid end-to-end.
Hope that helps.
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They weren't blue whales, they were humpback whales.
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the cheeto was shot by a registered republican using an ar-15
Correction. A white male registered Republican.
Now I could say something about a well regulated militia and hitting the target, but I'm sure that would put me on some kind of list. If I'm not already on some kind of list.
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by a mentally deranged man-child
Did he stutter?
Re:lol (Score:4, Informative)
Remember when the convicted felon's one son joke about Paul Pelosi's attack [time.com], an attack far worse than what happened on Saturday? Remember when Elmo retweeted, and commented on [latimes.com], a fake comment about Pelosi and his attacker meeting? Remember when a whole bunch of Republicans [time.com] were quick to jump on every conspiracy theory about the attack and even added their own words to make fun of the attack?
Naw, didn't think so.
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Karma's a bitch.
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Yes, and the demented old fart with the big mouth and the small hands knows a lot more about that since yesterday night.
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For once I'm actually okay with the proliferation of guns in this country.
If you are against the proliferation of guns you should be against them regardless of who is targeted.
Assassination always makes things worse.
But honestly, what kind of schlub could miss a pumpkin-sized target at a 100 yards with an AR-15?
Bullets don't travel instantly fast. Trump moved his head slightly between when the would-be assassin pulled the trigger and the bullet reached the target. The shot missed killing him by two inches.
Was Steve Wonder the shooter? I own 2 AR-15s and there is NO fuckin' way even a slightly competent shooter could miss with that rifle at that distance.
Yeah, everybody brags they're Annie Oakley and can bring down a partridge with only one cartridge.
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If you are against the proliferation of guns you should be against them regardless of who is targeted.
Guns should only be sold to people who got proper training on how to use them safely.
Hint: you don't attempt head shots, you aim for center of mass. Head shots may look more groovy if successful, but are far too easy to miss.
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Guns should only be sold to people who got proper training on how to use them safely.
"Not shooting at other people" would be high on the list of what to do in order to use guns safely, I'd think.
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Assassination always makes things worse.
No, it does not.
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At that distance the pumpkin didn't move enough during that time to matter; haven't you shot a target at that distance? there is hardly any delay between trigger and target.
There was a cop trying to get to him and he was in a hurry at the time he shot. Plus he didn't make the school shooting team probably for a reason.
This is all moot, Trump would have resurrected in 3 days anyway.
"Speed of Sound" (Score:5, Interesting)
As this article is talking about things whizzing around in space, one would hope they would be specific about their "Speed of Sound" reference.
The speed of sound is different depending on the medium. Its different in Glass, Water, on Venus, on Mars, etc....
While we assume they're talking about Earth at sea level, that seems pretty specific and won't be very useful to aliens when they come across this article.
--
No finite point has meaning without an infinite reference point. - Jean-Paul Sartre
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Yep. Since that's all that's really 'meat' in this bit of news, it really should have been done properly. If you don't even know how the speed of sound works, you shouldn't be doing science reporting at all.
Re: "Speed of Sound" (Score:2)
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sound doesn't "work" in a vacuum..
Tell that to the probe and whales in Star Trek IV.
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The reporter talks about "the speed of the sound here" [on Earth] so he is not completely wrong, just quite obscure. But as speed of sound at the surface of Earth is irrelevant for space travel, he should be instead comparing to more meaningful speeds, such as the orbital velocity of the Moon (1 km/s), or the heliocentric velocity of Voyager 1 (16.6 km/s).
More wrongness:
* giving the time to travel from Washington to Tokyo. Is it in straight line (through Earth's outer core) or following a geoid at a certain
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>he should be instead comparing to more meaningful speeds
For pop science reporting, I would also accept multiples of common highway speeds (based on the local standard where the article is published), or multiples of a top end drag racer or military jet with the actual speed given in kph (and mph for Americans).
If the idea is to communicate information, you have to do so in a way that your target audience can understand it.
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Re: "Speed of Sound" (Score:2)
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Don't you really want to compare it to the speed of light in a vacuum (299,792,458 metres per second or 1.079e+9 kph) as that is a universal constant which the aliens will easily understand.
To put into context, 692,000 kph is 0.06% the speed of light. This isn't going to be a contender for the Kessel Run.
Also, don't you need to indicate the frame of reference that you're measuring the speed in?
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What we really need to know is how many Olympic-sized swimming pools that represents.
Olympic-sized swimming pools (Score:2)
No matter how many Olympic-sized swimming pools you have, they are all going to boil dry in space, at that distance from the sun.
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While we assume they're talking about Earth at sea level, that seems pretty specific and won't be very useful to aliens when they come across this article.
I would assume anyone visiting would be too busy laughing at us to bother reading anything we wrote down in Ye Olde English.
(We humans would be as advanced as aliens visiting had we not pissed away the last 1,000 years carving up a planet into Yours and Mine, perpetually killing each other drawing lines in the sand.)
In space noboday can hear.... (Score:2)
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You are so pedantic!
You spoiled my day!
Dangerous (Score:1)
We're talking around 500 times faster than the speed of sound here
Someday if my space-car is idling at a stop sign that happens to cross this thing's path, my chances of hearing it coming would be slim because of the doppler effect. Yes, that stuff I just said made lots of sense.
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That's almost on par with "I'll track their locations by making a GUI with Visual Basic".
Oh dear (Score:3)
"Fastest Object Ever Made By Humans..."
Relative to what? (Physics 101).
LHC Protons Faster (Score:2)
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I rather suspect that human-made photons have travelled even faster.
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gravity assists are trying to SLOW DOWN (Score:2)
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Gravity assists make you change direction. The probe's speed relative to Venus is essentially the same before and after, measured at the same distance. Its velocity is different.
If you're orbiting something, changing direction can make you speed up or slow down. In this case, speed up relative to the thing you're orbiting, and the thing you came from, and the thing you used for an assist, except for one little part of your orbit.
500 times faster (Score:3)
"500 times faster than sound" How fast does sound go around the sun?
"In interplanetary space near Earth, the mean free path is about one astronomical unit and the speed of sound is on the order of 10 to 100 km/s." So, apparently, this thing is traveling at 5000 to 50,000 km/s." ( https://physics.stackexchange.... [stackexchange.com]. )
Wow, very impressive. Up to about 17% the speed of light.
To Mars (Score:1)
Better reference (Score:2)
Most people who would be interested in this article are familiar with the Voyager probes. They have achieved escape velocity from the sun, currently at about 60 km/hr. That would be 1/10th the speed of the Parker Solar Probe's peak, raising the interesting question of why it is still in orbit around the sun, and what it is about the orbital mechanics that keeps it from just flying away like Voyager I and II.
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Voyager 1 and 2 are moving at 17 km/second and 15 km/second, respectively.
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Aha! That explains part of it then --
Voyager 1, 17 km/s = 17 km/s * 60 s/min * 60 min/hr = 61,000 km/hr
Voyager 2, 15 km/s = 15 km/s * 60 s/min * 60 min/hr = 54,000 km/hr
Which goes to show that you should be more careful about those pesky thousands than I was!
Caution, Overtaking is Dangerous (Score:2)