Exploring the Effects of Cooling and Slowing Down Solar Particles

[TungstenX]

Good day All,

Just a quick question:
The sun emits charge particles, very hot moving very fast, right? (stop if my knowledge is incorrect )
What will happen if one can cool down and / or slow down said particles?


TX

 

[phyzguy]

I don't understand your question. If you cool down and slow down the solar wind particles, you will have cooler and slower particles... What exactly is your question?

 

[TungstenX]

Uhm...

To expand my question:
What are these particles (to start off)? (Atoms, sub atomic particles, etc)

Can these solar wind particles be used for anything useful?
(Useful as in building stuff?)

(The question was so clear in my mind, but I guess it is just one of those days )

 

[phyzguy]

Well, it's just ions blown off from the surface of the sun, so it's mainly made up of protons, alpha particles, and electrons. There's not very much of it, so collecting it would be a very expensive way of getting materials (hydrogen and helium) that are available much more cheaply here on Earth.

 

[TungstenX]

So, collection of them for manufacturing fuel or energy will not be a good idea, even if one is already in space?

 

[phyzguy]

Well, let's try to calculate it. Wikipedia says that the solar wind releases 10^36 particles/second. At the Earth's orbit, this works out to ~ 10^18 particles/sec/(sq km). Let's say we built a collector 1 km on a side and collected particles for a year - we would collect about 10^26 particles, or about 200 grams of hydrogen. At current prices, this is worth about 80 cents. Sound worth it to you?

 

[TungstenX]

Uhm, not really

And I suppose that a huge magnet will not help much other than push up the cost