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The Parker Solar Probe will make its closest approach yet to the Sun

(arstechnica.com)
164 points pseudolus | 2 comments | 20 Dec 24 11:23 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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blindriver ◴[20 Dec 24 19:58 UTC] No.42474421[source]▶
I don't know if I'm shocked or not shocked that the temperature is 2500F 4 million miles away from the Sun. Part of me expected it to be much much hotter than that, but I guess it is 4 million miles. Considering we are 90 million miles away, and the temperature still gets up to 120F on the Earth, maybe that makes sense?
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1. lizzas ◴[20 Dec 24 21:24 UTC] No.42475186[source]▶
Depends on the object receiving the heat. Walk outside in bearfoot in summer. You will soon notice some surfaces are way hotter than others. This depends on how efficiently heat can transfer. Convection, radiation, conduction I think are the 3 ways.

The air temp is heated by the sun, those surfaces then the atmosphere is preventing heat escaping. A lot going into that 120F!

That is why things like climate change and urban heat islands don't need a closer sun.

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2. dreamcompiler ◴[21 Dec 24 04:27 UTC] No.42477554[source]▶
Indeed. The Moon's surface temperature swings between 250F and -208F and it's essentially the same distance from the Sun as Earth is. The wild swings happen because the Moon has no atmosphere.

https://www.space.com/18175-moon-temperature.html