Friday, March 23, 2012

Fast worlds

Consider this: The fastest macro-scale objects in the universe may be runaway planets, some of which have been clocked at 30 million miles per hour. That's about .1c...a pretty respectable pace.

These runaway planets are being slingshotted out of our galaxy.

How about a society or a culture that ends up, deliberately or otherwise, going along for the ride. Or, consider this...what about a society or a culture from another galaxy that ends up here by that means.

And how fast could a lighter object that slingshots around a black hole go...such as a ship?

2 comments:

  1. The maximum velocity of a slingshot maneuver is limited by 1> The ratio of masses and 2> The force of gravity at the closest approach. For a black hole and a planet (or a starship) the ratio would be very high, but you'll have to gauge structural integrity against the gravitational gradient. The closer you get to a black hole the greater the structural stresses will be. Roche limits, basically.

    When you're going fast, anywhere except intergalactic space, the matter you crash into along the way will be experienced as a kind of "induced" cosmic radiation. As such, your .1 c planet will have a surface that's sterilized and uninhabitable unless it doesn't rotate (with respect to the incoming "radiation") and then you would have usable surface area on the "dark" side of the planet.

    Though that does introduce an interesting quirk...what if there was a form of "life" that had evolved to absorb and utilize that radiation as a source of life energy? Heck, an entire planet(oid) could be a life form, absorbing energy and matter from interstellar space when it takes its trip through a galaxy, and steering itself toward stars for another slingshot pass that aims it at another nearby galaxy. It would be extremely long-lived and perhaps sentient in a way that would make for an awesome story.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, in order to survive on such a world, you would need a high tech civilization anyway. I'm figuring they either A. Have some kind of shielding over their settlements (domes, etc) and/or B. Build mostly underground.

    ReplyDelete