Current Events > Would therr be any chance of ruining the sun if we sent garbage into it?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've heard of an idea before of getting rid of garbage by putting it in a spaceship and sending it autopilot straight into the sun

Could we ever fuck up the sun by accident? I think I'd be nervous about this if we ever enacted this plan.

I also wonder if someday we might use black holes as a garbage dump

The sun would be fine, but the logistics of being able to transport a meaningful amount of garbage to the sun basically renders the idea impossible

Too expensive to feasibly get it there

I still think we need to dump it in a volcano

you should want to kill the sun though

MabusIncarnate posted...

Too expensive to feasibly get it there

I still think we need to dump it in a volcano

If it weren't already irreparably culturally ingrained to create and dump trash, I'd say we should swap to Japan's burnable and non burnable system. Thing is, if we can't even get people to wash out containers before recycling then how can we expect even more awareness for things?

MedeaLysistrata posted...

you should want to kill the sun though

Well if you are Mario yes.

In the 4 billion years since it started fusing its own nuclear material the sun has lost less than a tenth of a percentage of its mass, and it burns almost 5 million tonnes of mass every second. Any amount of earth matter "rocketed into it", which doesn't sound possible, but whatever, would be so diluted as to have no significant, and even no insignificant, affect on the functionality of its process.

It might lower property values, I guess.

remandramdoll posted...

If it weren't already irreparably culturally ingrained to create and dump trash, I'd say we should swap to Japan's burnable and non burnable system. Thing is, if we can't even get people to wash out containers before recycling then how can we expect even more awareness for things?

That brings us right back to the biggest problem, most of humanity sucks and is unwilling to make minor inconveniences in their lives for the betterment of the planet and the future of humanity.

It always comes back to us not seeing eye to eye, not coming together to do what's right. Our selfishness will end us eventually.

I'm only joking about the volcano thing, but I wonder compared to all the other shit we constantly dump into the atmosphere if this would really have a massive impact on pollution or not.

Just send it to Venus, no one's ever going there.

You could probably toss the whole earth into the sun with no lasting effect on the sun.

PballDepot posted...

Just send it to Venus, no one's ever going there.

Yeah, have Venus be our trash planet.

Meanwhile Mars should be the planet we colonize after we finishing destroying Earth with our pollution and overpopulation. Once we invent a cheaper and safer way to get there it'll end up like Total Recall, just another place to live on.

like 10 earths can fit into the sun so maybe it'll have little effect

"Alright guys, we've sent all our garbage into the sun and nothing bad has happened. And some of you were worried!"
*1 day later*
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/9/0/AAYdjcAAEXzq.jpg

You guys are missing the point. It costs like 10k to put 1lb of anything into space. There's 269,000 tonnes of trash in our oceans. So how are you going to achieve this?

Trash is still material from the earth. After millions of years, they decompose and goes back into the earth's ecosystem.

Do we really want to keep getting rid of chunks of out planet before we have the technology for asteroid mining?

pinky0926 posted...

You guys are missing the point. It costs like 10k to put 1lb of anything into space. There's 269,000 tonnes of trash in our oceans. So how are you going to achieve this?

We find a way to secretly stick it underneath Chinese space vehicles when they're not looking and make China bear the cost.

Cobra1010 posted...

Trash is still material from the earth. After millions of years, they decompose and goes back into the earth's ecosystem.

Do we really want to keep getting rid of chunks of out planet before we have the technology for asteroid mining?

We won't last that long at the rate that our trash is crashing biodiversity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHvR1fRTW8g

hitting the sun is hard

pinky0926 posted...

The sun would be fine, but the logistics of being able to transport a meaningful amount of garbage to the sun basically renders the idea impossible

exactly this. the amount of fuel it would take to transport a decent amount of garbage out of our solar system and then the 93+ million miles to the Sun is astronomical.

You could chuck the entire planet into the sun and it wouldn't notice.

So let's do it.

BurmesePenguin posted...

In the 4 billion years since it started fusing its own nuclear material the sun has lost less than a tenth of a percentage of its mass, and it burns almost 5 million tonnes of mass every second. Any amount of earth matter "rocketed into it", which doesn't sound possible, but whatever, would be so diluted as to have no significant, and even no insignificant, affect on the functionality of its process.

The Earth, Mercury, Venus and Mars could smash into the Sun and it wouldn't affect the Sun one whit, aside from its orbit changing a bit.

Shamino posted...

The Earth, Mercury, Venus and Mars could smash into the Sun and it wouldn't affect the Sun one whit, aside from its orbit changing a bit.

What about if Jupiter crashed into the sun?

Zikten posted...

What about if Jupiter crashed into the sun?

The Sun's a 1000x bigger than Jupiter so the impact would still be negligible.

I was thinking more about the properties of Jupiter. Isnt it technically a failed star? Woukd there be a different reaction to it crashing into the sun compared to earth or mars doing so? Like a nuclear explosion maybe

I think it would be best to just leave the sun alone.

BuckVanHammer posted...

I think it would be best to just leave the sun alone.

"The sun is the sun! I can see where it is!"

BuckVanHammer posted...

I think it would be best to just leave the sun alone.

The sun started it.

"I've heard of an idea" is an interesting way to spell "I was watching Futurama"