Have we ever observed a body or particle with non zero mass traveling at almost $c$?
I'm asking this because according to relativity as an object approaches light speed it's mass approaches infinity, so the particle or object might turn into a black hole?
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Qmechanic
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user1062760
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1Every time you open your eyes. – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Feb 13 '16 at 04:35
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Not only are there plenty of observed instances, this is exactly what we do with particle accelerators. – Derek Elkins left SE Feb 13 '16 at 04:45
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There are also naturally-occuring particles - cosmic rays -travelling at up to 0.999999999999 of light speed (per Google). – jamesqf Feb 13 '16 at 05:02
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Possible duplicates: http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/3436/2451 and links therein. – Qmechanic Feb 13 '16 at 05:16
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1Your own body is a non-zero mass travelling close to $c$ (with respect to other matter in the universe). – lemon Feb 13 '16 at 07:10
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Neutrinos! they have non-zero mass and travel at ~c. Also, particle accelerators speed up electrons, protons to ~c
kpv
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In its referential, the rocket has not gained mass, so have no reason to collapse.
Also, to have an effect on the environment you also need time (if two galaxies traverse each over fast enough, there is little effect). A (small) black hole passing close to Earth at near-c speed would have no effect as well.
Fabrice NEYRET
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In space, polar jets can be near-c speed, and supernovae shockwaves are relativistic as well (~10% c)
Fabrice NEYRET
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so if you are struck by just one particle from the polar jet it should impact you with a force enough to tear you apart due to the extreme momentum it would have from product of relativistic mass of a million tonnes and near light speed velocity – user1062760 Feb 13 '16 at 07:07
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It does have a strong impact (cosmic rays hurts electronic devices and can cause bugs), but don't exagerate the momentum gained by a poor electron alone ! You can do the calculation (pick up some numbers about cosmic rays, for instance). – Fabrice NEYRET Feb 13 '16 at 07:15
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I don't think so: there's nothing bad at that in the rules as in the practice, especially if these cover different aspects. But sometime people who disagree (sometime just on a detail, and sometime after having read too fast) just downmark instead of explaining their points. This just shouldn't be allowed, since it's just counterproductive + pretty harsh for the receiver that have no idea why. Even me with experience here, so 1000 times more for the beginner. – Fabrice NEYRET Feb 14 '16 at 20:18