Apotheosis said:
Given that it gets colder & colder the higher into the atmosphere you go
This is known as hydrostatic equilibrium. The Earth is very warm at its core, somewhat warm at its surface, and the higher in altitude you go, the closer to the temperature of space you get. If this situation were reversed -- if the Earth were cold at the center and hot at the surface -- there would be a very odd pressure inversion that would not be stable. The operative concept, that astronomical bodies are hottest in their centers, applies everywhere for this reason of stability.
If space is a vacuum, how does the sun burn?
The sun does not burn.
Is it not possible that, although emitting radiation, it could also be dark
Our eyes perceive radiation (in a small band of wavelengths) as visual stimulus. The Sun could not emit visible radiation and simultaneously appear dark, for that would be contradictory. The Sun also could not produce non-visible radiation without producing at least some visible radiation. It's effectively a giant ball of hot gas, and is therefore a 'thermal radiator' or 'blackbody.' We understand the radiation emitted by blackbodies very well, as it has been studied since the days of blacksmiths and their red-hot metal work.
our atmosphere also converting the suns energy to light. Pictures from space aside, which could be doctored, are we being lied to. Is the sun really cold & black; if not then why not; & why is this impossible?
I think it's important that you stop concerning yourself with conspiracy theories. You can walk outside with a telescope and a hydrogen-alpha filter from an astronomy store and spend all day looking at the surface of the Sun -- its color, its spots, its rotation, its prominences and flares. You can also view a candle flame through your filter, and convince yourself that the light from the Sun is just as real as the light from the candle.
If you think that the atmosphere somehow creates an illusion of light coming from the Sun, you'd be pretty hard-pressed to explain how it also creates the illusion of sunspots advancing across the face of the Sun, to disappear behind it and then re-appear a month later in the same configuration. That'd sure be one hell of an atmospheric feat.
Apotheosis said:
Despite insinuating I am thick; I am a fully qualified computer engineer, with qualifications as long as your arm, & I asked an intelligent question.
The reason people were gruff with you is because, despite your engineering qualifications, you have asked questions that many grade-school children can answer. That in itself is fine -- we love to teach -- but you then couched those questions in some rhetoric about conspiracies. That tends to raise the hackles of people who understand that all you need is a cheap telescope and filter to prove things to yourself with no reliance on authority.
Despite being "a self-sustaining nuclear fusion reaction" It is fire, is it not? How does fire burn in a vacuum?
It it not fire, it is fusion. The Sun is mostly made of hydrogen. Deep in its core, hydrogen atoms are squeezed together into helium atoms, releasing energy in the process. This mechanism requires no air, nor any other ingredients besides hydrogen and pressure.
Perhaps you have noticed that you are in atmosphere when this happens? I would not feel it in space. Duh.
Mankind has placed literally thousands of objects in orbit around the Earth. (It'd be hard to consider this a conspiracy, since it's pretty obvious that you lose your signal from your DirecTV satellite dish when the wind blows it out of alignment. Also, you can look up at night and
see low-Earth orbit satellites moving with your very own eyes.) Now, satellite engineers have 50 years of experience designing and launching satellites, and have learned a great deal about them. One of the largest problems with spacecraft is, in fact, heat. One side of the satellite faces the Sun, and receives an enormous amount of solar radiation, which heats that side of the satellite up to pretty ridiculous temperatures. The other side of the spacecraft is exposed to the blackness of space, and radiates away all its heat until it is ridiculously cold. A vast amount of engineering goes into making sure the satellites can withstand these enormous temperature gradients.
Also, the Moon provides a good example: on the sunlit side of the Moon, temperatures soar up to nearly 400K; on the dark side, temperatures go as low as 70K. (For reference, room temperature is about 300K, and water boils at about 373K.)
I can think of multiple & possible reasons as to why the certain truths of the nature of the Sun & our solar system would be altered or kept quiet. You obviously haven't thought about any of this stuff, if you can't answer the question intelligently then don't bother; let someone else have a go. You have obviously accepted everything you have been told in your little picture books.
Many of us here have spent our lives pursuing an understanding of the universe, and it's insulting for someone like you -- who admittedly does not even know what scientists have discovered, or by what logic they have reached their conclusions -- to claim that perhaps science is all wrong and it's a giant conspiracy instead. It's like saying you hate a symphony before the musicieans have even finished tuning up. You should consider becoming better-educated in science before attempting to dismiss it.
Apotheosis said:
I don't deal in conspiracy theory, although I am well read; If we all totally accept the theories & surmising of the present, & science is largely not a done deal; then where would we be? Probably still thinking that the World was flat & we would fall of it if we sailed over the edge, & believing we were centre of the Universe.
Science is far from done. There are hundreds or thousands of questions without answers, some very deep. On the other hand, there are many, many things that are so well understood that they are, for all intents and purposes, accepted as truth. The fact that Sun produces light is one of them. That is not to say that such truths are accepted without evidence; in fact, they are accepted as truth only because of the enormity of the evidence.
- Warren
