• Question: Could any metal withstand the suns heat?

    Asked by Awesome Abishek to Camilla, Rhys on 26 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Rhys Archer

      Rhys Archer answered on 26 Jun 2015:

      It depends what you mean by the suns heat. The hottest part of the sun is the plasma around the outside, this reaches for millions of miles into space and reach up to 3 million degrees Celsius! So no metal, or any liquid or solid could withstand that heat. If we somehow got past that to the surface of the sun, it is ‘only’ around 5000 degrees Celsius, so some liquids could withstand the heat, but not metals I don’t think.

    • Photo: Camilla Weiss

      Camilla Weiss answered on 26 Jun 2015:

      Tungsten has a melting point of 3422 deg Celsius! It will start to boil around 5500 deg Celsius, which is about the outer surface temperature of the sun. Maybe not so good for building a satellite to go to the sun, but good for use in lightbulbs!

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