We Don't Go Around the Sun

The Planets including Mercury, Venus Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune don't go around the sun. They go around the solar system's center of gravity known as the Barry Centre. Because of Jupiter's mass the Barry center of our solar system is a point beyond the sun's surface. 

~ image generated by artificial intelligence (chatGPT).  

It's natural to think we're going around the sun but where not. 

Tennis Balls and the Sun

Tennis Balls were originally white but sir David Attenborough, who was the head of the BBC at the time decided they should be yellow so they could be seen clearly on colour (colour) TV screens. White balls were very easy to see on black and white screens but not so clear on colour ones. 

~ image generated by artificial intelligence (chatGPT)

In space the sun is white but the blue portion of the light separates from the ray when it passes through the atmosphere and makes the remaining colours appear yellow. The Blue portion of the sun light eventually becomes scattered and causes the sky to appear blue. 

So the sun and tennis balls both originally appear white. 

Sources

~2024 QI facts by John Lloyd 

~BBC

~ NASA.gov website 

Fastest Spacecraft

According to NASA, the fastest spacecraft ever made is the Parker solar probe going very close around the sun on a highly elliptical orbit. It is traveling 430,000 miles per hour, over a million kilometres per hour. There is a shield on it made of carbon foam that is stopping the  spacecraft from melting in the sun's intense heat, but it is very close to the star. 

~Image generated by artificial intelligence (chatGPT). 

If you go within 4 million miles of the sun's surface, you need to be moving fast to achieve orbit. Otherwise the intense gravity of the sun you pull you down. The speed is to stop the probe cascading down to the surface of the sun.