Submission + - Europe Sending a Probe to the Sun (bbc.co.uk) 2
Mindflux0 writes: The European Union is going forward with the proposed Solar Orbiter, a space probe designed to study the sun. The probe will orbit closer to the sun than any other man-made object at a sizzling 42 million km. It's planned to launch in 2017 for close to a billion euros.
ESA != Europe != European Union (Score:2)
There's major territorial overlap when it comes to the three entities, but it's important to recognize them as distinct. Heck, Canada is a way more active, much fuller ESA ~member than my place (Europe, EU, European Cooperating State with ESA)
Insolation ~13x that of Earth's (Score:2)
That's 0.281 AU (Astronomical Unit = Earth/Sun distance). The solar irradiance (insolation) there is about 17.3 kW/m^2, or (1/0.281)^2 = 12.66 times that at the top of Earth's atmosphere (approx 1366 W/m^2). Toasty!