4 ms·
> Large icy or rocky bodies hitting the planet Or comparatively tiny bodies hitting the planet at relativistic speeds
by outworlder 2y ago
> Large icy or rocky bodies hitting the planet
Or comparatively tiny bodies hitting the planet at relativistic speeds
- qup 2y agoIs this likely? What is it a consequence of?
- protomolecule 2y agoWhat would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light? https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/
- qup 2y agoNice. Could a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light from [anywhere that could produce such a speed] make it to Earth and impact? What can cause chunks of matter to travel this fast?
- fragmede 2y agoCould one make it to Earth and impact? The universe is very large, so it's a possibility, but space is very big and very empty, so we'd have to get very very very very unlucky for that to happen. But supernova explosions, pulsars and neutron stars, gamma-Ray bursts, supermassive black holes, and (theoretical) dark matter annihilation could all do it.
- protomolecule 2y agohttps://www.universetoday.com/145006/there-could-be-meteors-traveling-at-close-to-the-speed-of-light-when-they-hit-the-atmosphere-1/ https://www.universetoday.com/145006/there-could-be-meteors-...
- rootusrootus 2y agoI wonder how often that happens. What's the fastest interstellar object we've ever detected? 0.01% of the speed of light, more or less? That's a few orders of magnitude shy of relativistic speed.