(John Baez) wrote

So, if you hit a hydrogen atom, it
acts like it has a kinetic energy roughly equal to 100 billion
times its usual mass-energy.

I'm not saying this makes it *impossible*, but you'd have to really
want to get there fast to take the trouble to shield against such
energetic hydrogen atoms - much less the slight chance of running into
something bigger.



Assuming cruising speed, shouldn't hitting dangerously energetic
hydrogen atoms be as rare an event in the traveller's inertial frame
as it is in ours?

I do not think that the velocity disttribution of intergalactic
hydrogen atoms varies from one inertial frame (say the space
traveller's) to the other (ours). Does it?

Regards

Italo Vecchi