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Though I'm sure many comets and other debris constantly make contact with the sun, I believe that this does very little in ways of "maintaining the mass of the sun" let alone what the sun needs to keep burning. Most of the materials found in comets and asteroids (as far as we know) are not "combustable" or radioactive. The do not carry large amounts of energy, besides kenetic =p. Though its a nice thought that maybe the sun will somehow last longer than our calculations predict, I don't believe this this will be any real contribution. A nice idea though =)
Clear Skies, Buldric
P.S. By our closest calculations, the sun sheds approx. 100 million tons of matter per second(not a typo). Even to retain mass, that would be a LOT of comets/kupier belt objects =p
__________________ "Don't tell me that man doesn't belong out there. Man belongs wherever he wants to go--and he'll do plenty well when he gets there."
~Wernher von Braun, Time magazine, 1958  Photography: Canon EOS Rebel XTi (400D) -Unmodified |