• Question: What is the nearest thing to the sun?

    Asked by ryjc101 to Amy, Grant, Martin, Shawn, Usman on 18 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Grant Kennedy

      Grant Kennedy answered on 18 Mar 2013:

      Well, Mercury is the nearest planet to our Sun. The closest a satellite made by humans ever got to the Sun was slightly closer than this.

      Thanks to pictures taken by the satellites SOHO and STEREO, we know that comets actually get way closer to the Sun than Mercury. The closest get about 50,000km above the Sun’s surface, so when you consider that the Sun is about 700,000km in radius, that’s super close, and I think these are the nearest things to the Sun.

      g

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