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\t\t\tIllustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins \/ Futurism. Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
We are not advocates of executing people in cruel and unusual ways here on Futurism, but we have to admit we are intrigued by this astronomer\u2019s proposal of launching bad people into the Sun<\/a>.<\/p>\n Of course, as the associate professor of astronomy at Monash University Michael JI Brown explains: the concept \u201csounds easy enough,\u201d but \u201cmay be harder than you think.\u201d And the reasons why are fascinating \u2014 at least from a perspective of physics, rather than criminal justice.<\/p>\n First, the rocket carrying our hypothetical villain deserving of a dramatic demise has to be going incredibly fast to break free of Earth\u2019s gravity \u2014 at least 11 kilometers per second, or over 25,000 miles per hour. Let\u2019s say we have a rocket capable of that, and we point it straight at the Sun \u2014 what then?<\/p>\n \u201cThe results are, to be honest, disappointing,\u201d Brown writes in a hopefully tongue-in-cheek essay for The Conversation<\/a>. \u201cWe miss the Sun by almost 100 million kilometers.\u201d<\/p>\n As you may have surmised, that\u2019s because the Earth is revolving around the Sun at around 30 kilometers per second, pushing our spacecraft off-course.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen our rocket leaves the proximity of the Earth it is traveling faster around the Sun than towards the Sun,\u201d Brown explained. \u201cAt first the rocket gets closer to the Sun. But the motion of the rocket around the Sun and gravity results in an elliptical orbit that misses the Sun entirely.\u201d<\/p>\n Our launch trajectory, then, needs to counteract Earth\u2019s orbit, which is no small feat, either. The rocket would need to break through low Earth orbit<\/a> at 32 kilometers per second, while travelling in the opposite direction of our planet\u2019s orbit. Once the rocket breaks free from the Earth\u2019s grasp, it enters the Sun\u2019s domain, where it is effectively not moving at all relative to the star.<\/p>\n \u201cAt this point the Sun\u2019s gravity would pull the rocket (and the villain contained therein) inexorably inward,\u201d Brown wrote. \u201cGiven this is a journey of 150 million km, the trip would take roughly 10 weeks \u2014 plenty of time for our villain to consider their sins before fiery destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n So, problem solved, right? Maybe in a future when we have much more powerful rockets, but right now, no. As Brown notes, the fastest ever spacecraft to leave Earth was NASA\u2019s New Horizons probe which launched in 2006 and reached its first destination Pluto<\/a> in 2015. It reached a top launch velocity of 16.26 kilometers per second, which is only half of what we need to execute our villain.<\/p>\n