5 ms·
I thought very strange things start to happen at even 10% the speed of light (mass increase, etc.) so 20% sounds impossibly ambitious? Also the fastest physica
by ck2 11y ago
I thought very strange things start to happen at even 10% the speed of light (mass increase, etc.) so 20% sounds impossibly ambitious?
Also the fastest physical object we've ever observed is only 1000 miles per second. A far cry from even 10% of c
Then there is that pesky problem of deceleration.
- mabbo 11y agoAt 20% the speed of light, time would dilate by around 2%, but that's about the extent of the effects, afaik. Also: why bother decelerating at all? Take a picture as you fly by.
- zdkl 11y agoWouldn't want to program that particular timer. Talk about hard real time requirements!
- saalweachter 11y agoIt'd be hilarious to have a bonus tied to the successful completion of that project. "In twenty years, I may get an $X bonus!"
- onesun 11y agoHave you ever tried to take a picture from a moving car? They never turn out.
- fsloth 11y agoThe sun is 8 light minutes away from earth. These babies would span that distance in 40 minutes. If the plan is to take planetary images I would call that basically crawling speed in terms of angular velocity (unless they are on actual collision course).
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- jessriedel 11y agoThey are definitely not planning on decelerating.
- nkrisc 11y agoThey're not going to put them into orbit, just a fly-by. Then they'll continue until they hit something some time in the future. In a million years some unlucky alien might get hit by an iPhone.
- noir_lord 11y agoTravelling at 20% of the speed of light, I think it'll probably bend..
- fapjacks 11y agoInadvertently starting an interstellar war, provided they survive the impact on their homeworld.
- nkrisc 11y agoAccording to Wolfram Alpha, an iPhone 6 Plus which weighs in at 192 grams would have about 3.558×10^14 joules of kinetic energy at .2c, or about 85 kilotons of TNT. That's roughly 4 times the energy of the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Not the biggest boom in the world, but certainly nothing to scoff at.
- ant6n 11y agoThe interstellar medium is holding it wrong.