It seems strange to me that as an ESL teacher I have been told by students of China, Taiwan and South Korea of speeds in excess of this like 3 or more years ago, upwards of 1 - 2 Gbps and here we are trying to sound cutting edge at approaching merely a fraction of this. I mean do they think we don't know? Is it arrogance or blind ignorance that says they have to invent for themselves something that all they need to is assimilate that which has already been done? I just don't get it at all!?! I've heard tell of movies within minutes and realtime, seemless online gaming such that they now have to 'rehabilitate' kids off them by means we can only conjecture. Yet here we are expected to be in awe of discovering what must seem like obsolete technology.

In the second place, if they're so sure about sending a probe into the sun's HOTTEST real estate, then why don't they build a second probe, a little fancier than the first one, send it a little past this real estate and just go ahead and punch into the suckker and tell us what it learns on the way in! I mean, they did it to Jupiter so I'm thinkin' 'Hey, what the hell; let's just do it!?'. If they're talking about photons etc, it would be interesting to actually know why theory holds it that it takes possibly thirty thousand years by one documentary I've watched and yet others say it takes 5 ot 6 figures in years to get out. In any case, if it could survive hanging around the corona, then it can get to the surface. If it can get to the surface it can 'splash' down. If it can splash down and send back usable data, we may even be able to unlock other fission/fusion secrets without bombing hell onto the Earth! It may even assist in finding ways of reconverting solar winds and other sun components into usable and reusable nuclear power for space travel... Sorry I get a little overenthusiastic about getting of the Earth in a much more adventurous way then merely 'going back to the moon'. Been there, done that! Yeah sure, if they reckon we need some sort of 'gas station' between Earth and Mars. I think,though, their scope is too limited... too 'old world'. If they think hard enough...If they look hard enough, they may actually find they can go further, faster, cheaper... All they need to do is just 'think about it for a moment'. Splashing down on the Sun itself will prove that anything is poosible!

In the first place, wouldn't you love to have been there when they were testing the resistance of the composite carbon solar shield... 'Here Homer, this won't hurt a bit!'. I mean if the heat don't kill ya then the radiation may really upset your day! It must be amazingly well insulated and just how much tax dollars don't we know about the cost of materials that failed the testing necessary to know it wasn't just gonna become a very expensive bottle rocket! (or is it an M-80 on steroids?)

I'm very new to this whole Slashdot thing, but hey... I'm a quick study! Anyway, I'll have a shot at this Jupiter discussion, though I admittedly haven't pursued it from it's original posting. From what I've read about Juptier particularly - and I've read/studied a bit - I doubt Jupiter could get denser, not to far beneath its seathing cloud mass, Jupiter is all metalic Hydrogen at enormously high temperatures and progressively higher. should anything add to the 'size' of jupiter, although it would still fall far short of a brown dwarf, it's heat signature, radiation and gravity would necessarily grow exponentially with the potential of dragging other bodies into itself (albeit slowly). these things are of course, very uncertain in that we don't have a whole hell of a lot of 'hard data' on super Jupiters, but that's what I could see happening. It could even, based on other extrasolar super and hot Jupiters, it is even concievable that the combined gravities of the Sun and Jupiter, it could actually draw Jupter closer to the sun, dragging the rocky planets into itslef on the way or perhaps if not then capture them into its ever growing collection of 'moons'. Kind of like the concept of the planet(oid) in the movie 'Avatar'. these are all based on what little we know of a solar system destabilized by a theoretical sudden change in a planet's mass. As with much of science... it's all next best guess until it's proven conclusively. One thing is certain, If Jupiter's electomagnetic field was not already big enough, it could really make life on Earth rethink the direction of its biological evolutionary. Yet again, who knows???