> From: "Eric Walker" <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Friday, November 16, 2012 10:52:24 PM > Subject: [Vo]:what if a diamond meteor hit the earth at the speed of light?
> "If a meteor made out of diamond and 100 feet in diameter was > traveling at the speed of light and hit the earth, what would happen > to it?” > > —Aidan Smith, Age 8, via his father Jeff Strictly speaking, anything AT the speed of light will have infinite mass. A diamond NOT in oxygen, and/or (?) at high pressures can survive heat up to at least 3000C -- but it will burn in oxygen at 750C. But I think it would make it through the atmosphere pretty much intact. On impact a diamond will shatter ... so I suspect you would get a relatively shallow crater compared to regular meteorites.
