How fast to asteroids really go? Do they travel faster then the speed of light?
E=(mc^2)/(sqrt(1-v^2/c^2)) <-- As you can see from this equation, nothing can go faster than light (see below). The velocity of asteroids depends on their distance from the sun. Many asteroids have eccentric orbits (oval-shapped). These asteroids move quickly near the sun, since the sun's gravity is stronger there. They have to move faster to maintain their orbit. E=(mc^2)/(sqrt(1-v^2/c^2)) Lookie lookie. If your velocity, v, is the greater than light speed, c, then you have sqrt(1-(a number bigger than 1)) which means you'll have to take the square root of a negative number. Uh oh! Think about it. The square root of -36 is neither 6 nor -6, since 6^2 = 36, and -6^2 = 36. The answer to this would be 6i, meaning that the 6 is not a real number, but rather imaginary (hence the "i"). Dividing by an imaginary number gives an imaginary answer, and we want to keep our E positive. So your v has to be less than c. Tachyons however may have imaginary mass, m. Imaginary number divided by imagina
Since asteroids are in orbit around the Sun, they must obey the rules of gravity, best set out in Kepler’s laws. The closer the are to the Sun the faster they move. The couple hundred closer to the Sun than Earth is will typically move 20 to 24 miles per second. Those further out move slower. Typical main belt asteroids will move in their orbits about 10 to 14 miles per second. The ones out beyond Pluto will be the slowest, at 4 to 5 miles per second. Light goes 186,282.3979 miles per second–a wee bit faster than any asteroid.
