Nasa's Parker Solar Probe will blast by the Sun at an incredible 435,000 mph on December 24 of next year which is expected to be a pivotal point in space exploration history.Relative to our star,...
Stars don’t have a solid core or a defined “surface”. They have more in common with Jupiter than Earth.
Where is the “surface” of jupiter? There is no solid ground to define as “the surface.” The entire planet is just a mega atmosphere, so once you are within the atmosphere, you are within the planet.
From very far away, we can clearly define “This pixel is jupiter, this other pixel is not”… but when you’re up close there isn’t such a clear separation. It doesn’t go from “Here there are 100% gas particles, and suddenly there are 0%” Just like Earth’s atmosphere. It doesn’t just suddenly go to 0 oxygen, and there have been plenty of debates about what counts as “outer space”
While I would agree with you that “landing” is a dumb word, because there is no ground to “land on.” The probe isn’t going to come to rest on a surface. But at the same time, for a “simplest explanation” case, its close enough. They are crossing the boundary into “inside” the sun (which again, is not the same thing as “inside the earth”, because rocky vs gas/plasma)
Stars don’t have a solid core or a defined “surface”. They have more in common with Jupiter than Earth.
Where is the “surface” of jupiter? There is no solid ground to define as “the surface.” The entire planet is just a mega atmosphere, so once you are within the atmosphere, you are within the planet.
From very far away, we can clearly define “This pixel is jupiter, this other pixel is not”… but when you’re up close there isn’t such a clear separation. It doesn’t go from “Here there are 100% gas particles, and suddenly there are 0%” Just like Earth’s atmosphere. It doesn’t just suddenly go to 0 oxygen, and there have been plenty of debates about what counts as “outer space”
While I would agree with you that “landing” is a dumb word, because there is no ground to “land on.” The probe isn’t going to come to rest on a surface. But at the same time, for a “simplest explanation” case, its close enough. They are crossing the boundary into “inside” the sun (which again, is not the same thing as “inside the earth”, because rocky vs gas/plasma)