4 ms·
Why? Sure, there's time dilation effects, but they are largely cancelled out. We have less notice for a given distance, but we also can see it coming from fart
by TheLoneWolfling 12y ago
Why?
Sure, there's time dilation effects, but they are largely cancelled out. We have less notice for a given distance, but we also can see it coming from farther away.
- InclinedPlane 12y ago.99c means that you have 1/100th as much time to respond relative to the detection distance. Let's say you spot the impactors an entire light-year away. The light will only reach you less than 4 days before impact. Can you put together an effective response plan in 4 days? If instead you spotted them out in the oort cloud (say, 1000 AU away) you would have less than 2 hours to respond.
- TheLoneWolfling 12y agoRight, but that is compensated by the fact that that same time compression also applies to any energy released by the impactor. It'd be putting out >3.5*10^7 watts / m^2 at 0.99c, from our perspective. And a single sand grain hitting it would release 27GJ. Not to mention... How on earth are you managing to keep something together when its being bombarded by hydrogen / helium at 0.99c?