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Does anyone know if any theoretical work has been done on the effects of a relativistic large-scale collision? Like if an asteroid were accelerated to 99.999...% light speed and slammed into a planet?
The backstory. In a Star Trek Enterprise novel I'm reading, a major plot point centers around a ship at warp speed colliding with a planet. Obviously, the physics of a superluminal collision are well beyond us, but I figure the next best thing would be a relativistic collision. Obviously there would be devastation on a massive scale, but...I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around just what the actual interactions would be. Would the object be going so fast that it actually passes through a lot of the target? If the object hit something like a space station in orbit first, would it still impact the plant?
The backstory. In a Star Trek Enterprise novel I'm reading, a major plot point centers around a ship at warp speed colliding with a planet. Obviously, the physics of a superluminal collision are well beyond us, but I figure the next best thing would be a relativistic collision. Obviously there would be devastation on a massive scale, but...I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around just what the actual interactions would be. Would the object be going so fast that it actually passes through a lot of the target? If the object hit something like a space station in orbit first, would it still impact the plant?