If a small pea sized object hit the earth moving at the speed of light what would happen?

[gmh101358]

Some of my super smart physics/math major friends said ....well one said the earth would be sucked into a black hole another said in might pass through the earth and not much would happen....and i thought the best anwser was no one knows.We were watching a show on the comets hitting the earth it would be wiped out etc. is why it was brought up last week-end.
We had some saying there is no objects moving through space at the speed of light.....but like my college days buddy says space is huge the speed of light is very slow for space travel......there could be thousands of objects moving at the speed of light....just because some telescope has not picked it up does not its not out there.... being so small it would not see it/pick it up anyway.

 

[OilUzer]

I believe in

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

I guess it would depend on the mass of the object itself. Plenty of asteroids burn up on entry and they're moving a lot slower.

 

[kschachn]

It is correct that no object of mass can travel at the speed of light. Only massless objects can travel at that speed, and only at that speed.

A massive particle can travel very close to that speed however. To answer your question it would depend entirely upon the mass of the particle. There are some subatomic particles that have mass that are traveling at a very high percentage of the speed of light and hit the earth’s atmosphere millions of times every hour. As far as you and I are concerned nothing really happens.

 

[Knerml12]

Even though the effective mass of the object will increase by 50 to 100% at the speed of light, it's still a very small object with minimal kinetic energy. It would simply explode in the atmosphere.

 

[kschachn]

Here are some astronomical objects that accelerate significantly massive particles to near the speed of light. Anything within light years of that jet is destroyed.

Astrophysical jet - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Kestas]

I never fully studied Einstein's theory of relativity, but wouldn't the mass of the object be completely converted to pure energy?

 

[mk378]

Something actually moving at 100% the speed of light would carry an infinite amount of energy, so the whole universe would be obliterated.

As the speed of light is approached, additional accelerating force will increase the velocity of the object only slightly (and less and less each time), but it will have more kinetic energy.

 

[kschachn]

As the speed of light is approached, applying an accelerating force will change the velocity of the object only slightly, but it will have more kinetic energy.

Yes mostly due to increasing mass.

 

[kschachn]

Your question appears to be a popular one. There are is least one answer in the responses that seems reasonable:

If a pea-sized object, travelling at the speed of light, collided with Earth from space (meteor style), what would happen?

Answer (1 of 7): Firstly, an object with mass should not be able to reach the speed of light. That speed is reserved for particles without mass. Binary black holes can reach very high speeds (say, 2/3 speed of light) in the final fractions of a second before merging. Despite the enormous amount o...

www.quora.com

 

[Chris Meutsch]

Is the pea frozen, fresh, or cooked? This is the ultimate question.

 

[PandaBear]

What do you get when you multiply infinite to zero? Do you get a zero or do you get infinite?

Your hypothetical question of whether you can get something with mass to speed of light, means it is going to be extremely small, traveling extremely fast, the energy of 1/2 MV^2 would be like multiplying something that's zero to infinity. You will have an undefined answer.

The other thing is, this nearly massless thing object will need to get its enery from somewhere to reach nearly speed of light, the amount of energy to reach faster and faster speed is not linear, so where is the energy input going to be from? This energy source is the concern, not the speed of the object it accelerate, this energy source in a slower bigger object can be just as dangerous to earth regardless of speed, as long as the energy is the same amount. Similar comparison would be whether a water jet cutting tool is more dangerous or a big rush of water from a flooding river is more dangerous. Water jet is a smaller amount of faster water but a flooding river, despite being slower, is actually just as dangerous.

 

[gmh101358]

Yes mostly due to increasing mass.

I was econ/finance major 40 years ago.....this is all way above my pay scale

 

[Schandyman]

Was this conversation before or after a joint

 

[Bill_W]

Pea soup.

 

[gmh101358]

Was this conversation before or after a joint

lol....more like ex-lax and advil at my age these days......hell im excited to have a big poop

 

[Bill_W]

Light is a particle, such as your pea example. In quantum physics the conscious observation of the particle changes the state of energy of the particle.


Kinda puts a new perspective on the purpose of a consciousness of everything. The ultimate observer.

May I suggest this… In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void. And darkness was on the face of the deep. And God created light. (Big Bang and Dark Matter)

 

[Duffyjr]

I believe in

Yip and if I don't get to see one before I die I'm going to be extremely disappointed.

lol....more like ex-lax and advil at my age these days......hell im excited to have a big poop

I hear ya, ain't nothing like a good bowel movement

 

[DriveHard]

If something with mass was traveling at the speed of light, I thought it would have infinite mass?

 

[Silver]

Is the earth round or flat in this hypothetical pea experiment?