Science 23 Jan 2005 06:25 pm
99.9% the speed of light…
It's pretty crazy, when you consider that the faster you move, the more energy is required to propel you. So as an object approaches the speed of light, the amount of energy required to make it go that fast approaches infinity. Nonetheless, it exists.
Jets of hot gas ejected from hyperactive galaxies can travel at 99.9% the speed of light. The jets of gas are referred to as blazars. Hooray funny words. The amount of energy required is intense. But there are even faster things, apparently. I'd ruminate further, but the Pats game is about to start. I'll leave you with this:
Ponder the power of the fast moving superheated gas, known as plasma:
"To accelerate a bowling ball to the speed newly measured in these blazars would require all the energy produced in the world for an entire week," Piner said. "And the blobs of plasma in these jets are at least as massive as a large planet."
