Hypothetically is a spaceship was travelling at the speed of light and collided with the atmosphere....?

Question

what would happen to the spaceship would it be like a bug hitting a windshield?

Answer 1

using einsteins theory of special relativity, if the ship traveled at the speed of light, then its mass would increase to infinity, and its volume would be compressed to zero, the spaceship would become a black hole and then suck the earth into it.
i'd like to say its a joke, but look up special relativity and black holes and you'll see.

Answer 2

We're talking unimaginable speeds here. It would take that spaceship ~1 second to travel from the moon to here. I think we can look at it at the molecular level. Since molecules travel in average at a speed negligible when compared to the speed of light, we can assume they are not moving. So, it would be like smashing into a wall. But since the spaceships is solid and air has a lot of empty space in between, it would be a crash in layers of molecules, so that eventually the spaceship would disintegrate.

I'm not sure of how much energy each collision would release, but I think it would be enormous, in the form of heat and radiation. Of course I'm just making this up, since I have no way to think about it with the physics I know.

Answer 3

It depends on the dimensions of the space ship.
If the space ship has a very sharp front, it could penetrate the air smoothly.

But at the first place, you can't create a space ship travelling at speed of light because according to Einstein, a object with mass will become heavier if it travels faster. So it means an object will have infinite mass.

Answer 4

If a space ship hit the atmosphere at even 1/100 the speed of light it would be instantly plasmized.

Answer 5

nope. Hypothetically if we could design a spaceship capable to travel at the speed of light, what would stop us from designing one that could withstand colliding with the atmosphere, as long as we're talking hypothetically?

Answer 6

you are able to no longer hit a button and "leap" to easy velocity, like in the action pictures. because of the fact a million. we've not got the means to do it. 2. the instantaneous acceleration would kill you - thousands and thousands of G's. The acceleration would be sluggish, by technique of the time to procure to easy velocity you would be 10 billion miles from the solar. way previous the asteroid belt, even previous the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud. Interstellar area has much less debris in it different sensible we would not additionally be waiting to work out stars from the clutter. So, in interstellar area you would be quite secure from colliding with something. yet another element is this, no be counted how briskly you're going, in case you became on a flashlight the sunshine from the flash easy would leave it on the fee of light. In different words, radar would nevertheless artwork at detecting gadgets, and you ought to perform a little turning to ward off them. As for friction dealing with a community with gasoline, you ought to apply ablative tiles for protecting like the area return and forth makes use of on re-get right of entry to. i've got confidence quicker than easy velocity is organic technology fiction.

Answer 7

Quite a bit worse than a bug hitting the windshield. More like bye-bye space ship in a flaming ball of fire.

Answer 8

I believe it would it would kill all life on this planet and the planet it self because the kinetic energy that would be released from such an impact would be so great and immense.

Answer 9

.it would be destroyed and burned to a crisp.