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Can We Travel to the Sun?

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By Space.com Staff
published

Sunrise Over Shuttle Atlantis
The sun rises over the Atlantic Ocean at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, illuminating space shuttle Atlantis' external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters on Launch Pad 39A. Launch is scheduled to take place for the STS-135 mission on July 8, 2011. This image was taken on June 23, 2011. (Image credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann)

In theory, we could. But the trip is long — the sun is 93 million miles (about 150 million kilometers) away — and we don’t have the technology to safely get astronauts to the sun and back yet.

And if we did, it’d be pretty hot. The sun’s surface is about 6,000 Kelvin, which is 10,340 degrees Fahrenheit (5,726 degrees Celsius).

The sun would melt anything that got near it. But we can send robotic probes toward the sun and even around it. Today, many unmanned solar telescopes keep a constant watch on the sun to monitor its behavior and weather patterns.

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Space.com Staff
Space.com Staff
News and editorial team

Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor.