Can a Meteor hit the sun?

Question

If there was a such thing as a meteor as big as 3 miles and going at the speed of light will it hit the sun without melting since it is going to fast? Can i go through the sun?

or at least a meteor the size of 12 miles?

Answer 1

A 3 mile diameter rock smashing into the sun would get a very rude dose of heat the closer it got to the sun. The corona(the flames that jut out from the sun) of the sun is about 5,000,000 K. Then it cools way off to 5,778 K on the surface. If the rock got to the core then its gone for sure because the core temps are over 15,000,000 K.

A 12 mile meteor would do about the same as a 3 mile one, get very toasty very quick and never make it to the surface.

Answer 2

A meteor could certainly hit the Sun and many must do, but it is unlikely, even at light speed, to do much damage or go right the way through.

The Sun is 864938 miles in diameter, so any meteor would be insignificant in size to the Sun. The outer layer is around 6000 degrees Centigrade, which is hot enough to melt rock and (obviously) hot enough for nuclear fusion to take place.

Your meteor would vapourise before it got too far.

Answer 3

yes, a meteor COULD hit the sun. they do all the time.
they hit our atmosphere daily........ now considering the sun is the largest source of gravity in our solar system then................. of course they do.


that amount of mass traveling at the speed of light hitting the sun would probably DESTROY the sun.

e=mC2

c is the speed of light

2 proton hitting each other at the speed of light = atomic bomb.

multiply that by say 37 quadtrillion billion hundred twenty million (for the amount of protons in 3 sq miles of matter)
and you have a VERY VERY VERY VERY large atomic bomb on the sun.

IF

your meteor doesn't "melt" first. Travelling at the speed of light won't give it much time to burn up though.


cbirch---------- of course we have, but that object was NOT traveling at the SPEED OF LIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An object that has any "mass" (?3 miles worth of it?) CANNOT travel the speed of light because it would need an infinite amount of energy.

that energy would be translated when the objects stops into an INFINITE amount of energy released onto our sun and would extinguish it like a candle in the wind


point being, the meteor CANNOT travel the speed of light

Answer 4

A meteor like that wouldn't faze the sun. The sun is probably more than a million times the size of the meteor. It would just swallow it up.

Answer 5

3 miles, 12 miles are both not even again of sand compared to the sun. either one wold have no noticeable effect on the sun. If the Mercury of Venus were plunged in to the sun, than there would more than likely be some sort of a noticeable effect.

Answer 6

wouldnt even make a dent in the sun. and to the first dude that answered. our planet was able to survive the impact of a planet sized object early in its history, the sun could survive a huge impact.

E=MC^2 is the formula for an objects energy at rest. (o and protons and meteors dont travel near the speed of light, its impossible for ANYTHING except a photon or quanta to travel at the speed of light.)
E=.5MV^2 is the correct equation.

EDIT: and technically if it somehow was traveling at the speed of light the energy it would release upon impact would be infinite, so theoretically that would destroy not only the sun but everything else.