- #1
deckart
- 106
- 4
I just read of an idea to send a craft outside our solar system using the various stellar bodies to sling shot it and also create a way for it to continually accelerate. In which case it would eventually near the speed of light. So in fifty years it could send us pictures and what not of faraway places. Which, of course, one would think it would take fifty to get back.
But then it occurred to me that if it is traveling close to the speed of light and it sends signals toward the direction from which it is traveling, near (or at) the speed of light, the signal would actually be traveling, relative to us, VERY slow. Is this accurate? Or am I missing something? If I'm traveling in the back of a pick-up truck at 55mph and I throw a ball behind the truck at 40mph, is not the ball traveling in the direction of the truck 15mph?
Thank you in advance for your response.
But then it occurred to me that if it is traveling close to the speed of light and it sends signals toward the direction from which it is traveling, near (or at) the speed of light, the signal would actually be traveling, relative to us, VERY slow. Is this accurate? Or am I missing something? If I'm traveling in the back of a pick-up truck at 55mph and I throw a ball behind the truck at 40mph, is not the ball traveling in the direction of the truck 15mph?
Thank you in advance for your response.