From: Zardoz ฎ 04/11/2001 19:38:19 Subject: re: COSMOLOGY FAQ post id: 484074 Space junk Why do we have to crash it on earth & not push it into the sun?? From: OP (Avatar) Except in a very few cases (such as Mir, Iridium), space junk is completely out of our control anyway. It just gets dragged down by the upper atmosphere. In the few cases where we can control the junk (ie there are still functional onboard systems) it is still not an option to send the stuff into the sun. To crash the object into earth only requires a change in velocity of a couple of hundred metres per second. We just need to dip the craft low enough so that the atmospheric drag will take it down for us. To send something to the sun would require a change in velocity of tens of thousands of metres per second. You would need to send up a fuel tank many times more massive than the craft itself. What is the closest star to Earth? The sun is of course.. Hehehe Trick question But ignoring the sun the other close stars are Proxima Centauri . 4.22 Light years Rigil Kentaurus Alpha Centauri ..4.39 Light years Barnard's Star ..5.94 Light years Wolf 359 CN Leo 7.80 Light years http://www.r-clarke.org.uk/nearest.htm Nearest Stars