Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to How practical is dumping nuke waste into the Sun?

That's actually a trick question
Gary — (archived)

Do the math and you'll find it requires more energy to dump something into the Sun than to fling it out of the Solar System. To dump something into the Sun from the Earth means the object's initial orbital velocity must be killed off. To fling something out of the Solar System requires adding a smaller amount of orbital velocity upon the original amount. The best place to dump garbage near the Earth is probably Venus. It requires relatively little energy to get there and Venus is such an awful place that no one would notice or care. The next best place is Jupiter. Anything that goes into Jupiter's atmosphere eventually gets vaporized as it descends deep into the atmosphere. In the case of Jupiter, radiation is not an issue since trapped radiation in the Jovian ionosphere is extremely intense (1000 rads near Io).

Gary

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