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

(arstechnica.com)
164 points pseudolus | 1 comments | 20 Dec 24 11:23 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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kfogel ◴[20 Dec 24 21:27 UTC] No.42475215[source]▶
Most of the comments so far are about the temperature and the closeness to the sun, and, hey, I get it: those are both amazing to think about. But to me even more amazing is... 0.16% of the speed of light?? Yikes.
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verzali ◴[20 Dec 24 21:37 UTC] No.42475305[source]▶
Pretty sure it's 0.064%, not sure why the article got it wrong, still impressive though
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caseyohara ◴[20 Dec 24 22:39 UTC] No.42475809[source]▶
Still. ~200,000 m/s (= ~430,000 mph) is unfathomably fast.
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Ankaios ◴[21 Dec 24 03:04 UTC] No.42477229[source]▶
~200,000 m/s is unfathomably fast.

It's about 110,000 fathoms per second.

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fy20 ◴[21 Dec 24 05:12 UTC] No.42477683[source]▶
Or if you prefer leagues, at that speed it would still take 9 minutes to reach the depth in Jules Verne's book.
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mwcremer ◴[21 Dec 24 06:33 UTC] No.42477899[source]▶
The title refers to the distance the _Nautilus_ traveled while submerged, not the depth it reached.
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1. ◴[21 Dec 24 11:23 UTC] No.42479011[source]▶