把垃圾扔到太阳上 有可能但不太可行

 

One vexing² query³ the pair have been exploring rocketed in from Elisabeth Hill, via BBC Future's Facebook page, who asked: "Could we shoot garbage into the Sun?"

 

Fair question. After all, if we can detect gravitational waves, or send a probe to land on a comet, surely we can send some rubbish to our nearest star?

 

Though as Rutherford and Fry discovered in the radio episode, it's not so simple:

 

The primary problem is weight. The average person in the UK produces 1.85kg of waste per day; in the US, it's 2.3kg.

 

As Andrew Pontzen of University College London points out, it costs $200m to get the Ariane V rocket into an orbit ready to travel further into space. With a payload of approximately 7,000kg, that works out at around $41,000 per kilogram. A hefty price to pay for a few plastic wrappers and a bottle or two.

 

So, theoretically possible? Yes. But realistically desirable? Probably not.

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