Pun intended, but still a serious question.

Would a neutron matter? (Pun also intended, but also serious)

  • @slickgoat
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    419 hours ago

    Didn’t one of the space shuttles almost holed by a fleck of paint?

    • @cynar
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      English
      717 hours ago

      The ISS has been pinholed by debris a few times. Likely paint. The shuttle was damaged by foam breaking off, amongst other events.

      By comparison orbital velocity is around 7km/s, while a bullet is around 0.367km/s. Any mismatch will push debris up to bullet speeds easily.

      As for relativistic speeds. C is 300,000km/s assuming you get up to 1/3C (barely relativistic) you are moving at 100,000km/s or 14,000x faster than the ISS moves, or 39000x faster than a bullet. A 10g rock would hit with 10kilotons of energy. About 2/3 the energy of the first atom. bombs.