• Question: could / did someone land on a star?

    Asked by Gracie to Anthea, Chloe, Kevin, Michel, Sean on 17 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Chloe Kinsella

      Chloe Kinsella answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      On Thursday,the European Space agencys Rosetta mission landed its Philae probe on a comet, the first time in history that such an extraordinary feat has been achieved. The comet, name Chury, weighs over 10 billion tons, is 4.1km long at its widest point, and it has been claimed by many as looking a bit like a rubber duck in shape! Comets are often referred to as “dirty snowballs.” They are left over from the formation of stars and planets billions of years ago.

      Noone has ever landed on a star, and for the forseeable future, noone will. Firstly they are very very far away. Sercondly they are extremely hot (thousandsof degrees centigrade) so humans or spaceships would melt before even reaching a star. And finally, stars are not made up of solids so they do not have a landing surface. They are believed to be a mixture of liquids and gases.

    • Photo: Kevin Healy

      Kevin Healy answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      For someone to land on a star it would require at least liquid to land on (like a boat or something). Stars are so hot they are made of not just liquid or gases but a whole new state of matter called plasma. Its hard to imagine plasma because we are more familiar with the other states of matter solids, liquids and gas, and dont come across plasma very often. Plasma is made by either super heating a gas or puting it in a strong electrical field. The two examples we come arcoss on earth that do this are lighning and also neon lights. Stars can then be thought as differnt layers of plasma with nuclear reactions occuring in the centre so essential landing on the sun wold be somthing similar to trying to land on an explonding nuclear bomb (actually probably worse), not sure I would go on that trip!

    • Photo: Anthea Lacchia

      Anthea Lacchia answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      This question reminded me of the book “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, where a prince that had been living on an asteroid falls to earth and tells his story. The prince had visited six other asteroids. It’s a magical story and I’d really recommend it! But as for landing on a star, I think it will remain only a tale of the imagination, as the others above have explained.

Comments