Size: 2432
Comment:
|
Size: 2442
Comment:
|
Deletions are marked like this. | Additions are marked like this. |
Line 24: | Line 24: |
{{https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Local_Interstellar_Clouds_with_motion_arrows.jpg | | }} | {{https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Local_Interstellar_Clouds_with_motion_arrows.jpg | | width=800 }} |
Star Travel and the Interstellar Medium particle effects
The interstellar medium - the coronal gas - forms a column between locations in space. The sun is 4 light years from one edge of a 60 light-year-across cloud with a density of 0.3 hydrogens per cubic centimeter, or 3e5 H/m3, encountering the sun as it moves towards Scorpio at 25 km/s. Around that cloud is the Local Bubble, 300 LY across with a density of 50 H/m3. A light year is 9.5e15 meters, so for the first 4 light years in one direction, and more than 50 LY in the opposite direction, we encounter a column of hydrogen atoms with a density of about 1e21 H/m2-LY. That is the density of a layer of liquid water 30 nm thick per light year. 100 light years, 3 micrometers.
These protons will implant themselves in the surface of any object passing through them. At a mere 25 km/s, the energy per proton is 3.6 electron volts - many will bounce off. Approaching the speed of light, the energy approaches multiples of the mass energy of the proton, 938 MeV/c2. That will damage solid structure to the implant depth.
I don't know how much. A particle physicist can tell you how deep.
speed |
C |
H energy |
Pressure |
|
m/s |
|
|
Pa |
|
25k |
8e-5 |
4 eV |
|
|
30k |
1e-4 |
5 eV |
|
|
100k |
3e-4 |
50 eV |
|
|
300k |
1e-3 |
500 eV |
|
|
1M |
3e-3 |
5 keV |
500μ |
|
1.4M |
5e-3 |
10 keV |
|
low energy ion implantation |
3M |
1e-2 |
50 keV |
1.4m |
low energy van Allen belt |
10M |
3e-2 |
500 keV |
0.5 |
high energy ion implantation |
30M |
0.10 |
5 MeV |
14 |
7 W/m2 particle power in Local Cloud |
100M |
0.33 |
50 MeV |
500 |
high energy van Allen belt |
200M |
0.67 |
380 MeV |
4K |
relativistic |
250M |
0.83 |
500 MeV |
26K |
11 KW/m2 particle power in Local Cloud |