That is amazing! I suspect that we are safe in assuming that none of the large objects will be traveling at greater than 3000 kilometers/second (1% of the speed of light). Unfortunately, that is plenty fast to destroy the planet if the object is large.
I have never considered how much damage a space craft traveling near light speed would inflict, but apparently it would be bad news. Dave -----Original Message----- From: Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> To: vortex-l <[email protected]> Sent: Fri, Jan 10, 2014 3:36 pm Subject: Re: [Vo]:[OT]Star Object Ejection Process Eric Walker <[email protected]> wrote: There's an interesting xkcd writeup on a similar question (posed by an eight year-old): "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?” http://what-if.xkcd.com/20/ Amazing. I did not realize such a small object could cause so much damage, even at high speeds. If people ever make large interstellar spaceships the travel at a significant fraction of the speed of light, they better be careful how they steer them. If one goes out of control and whacks into a planet it will cause terrific damage according to these calculations. - Jed
