this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2026
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Its actually easier to launch stuff out of the solar system than to slow stuff down enough to fall into the sun
Is it because of our position?
As in, is it fair to say in terms of potential gravitational energy, that we are basically outside of the “centre” of sun’s gravity?
Not sure what you mean by the question, but it's because we're in orbit around the sun. We're already going way too fast, so you'd have to slow down, and slow down a lot.
It's actually a kinda' fun challenge in Kerbal Space Program to hit the sun, and KSP's solar system is much smaller than ours (meaning everything is much closer and easier to hit).
I meant whether we are farther away from the sun or not. As in, would it take less energy to hit the sun if we started from Mercury.
But now I realize that it’s our momentum given earths orbit. So I guess it would be harder from mercury cause it’s going faster?
Nope, it'd me much easier from Mercury. A higher orbit has more energy. A space ship has to speed up to increase it's orbit.
Think of it like the old expression about what an orbit even is: You're still falling same as always, you're just moving to the side fast enough to always miss. Earth is 'missing' the Sun by a whole lot more than Mercury is 'missing' the Sun.