What happens if you approach the speed of light

How fast is the speed of light in miles? The speed of light in a vacuum is , kilometers per second, which translates to , miles per second. Hypothetically, this means that if an object could travel at the speed of light, it could go around the Earth 7. Why is "c" the speed of light? What is the speed of light on Earth?

Light bends when it comes in contact with any matter - even dust - causing a slight decrease in speed. That said, light traveling through Earth's atmosphere moves almost as fast as the speed of light in a vacuum. What if dinosaurs were alive today? What if medical science cured all diseases?

What if we put an end to famine? What if there were no such thing as illness? Sources Brandeker, Alexis. May Video uploaded Nov. The Illustrated Brief History of Time. Lemonick, Michael D. Another effect of special relativity is that the lengths of objects moving near the speed of light — or stationary objects as you whiz past them at near light speed — shorten. This is called length contraction. But the effect is complicated, Kortemeyer said.

Objects zooming at close to the speed of light might experience length contraction and might be shorter, according to measurements by a stationary observer, but they would actually appear longer to that person's eyes due to another effect of special relativity called the runtime effect, Kortemeyer said.

For example, say a bicycle is coming toward you. The light from the front of the bike has a shorter distance to travel to your eyes than light from the back of the bike.

As a result, you see the front of the bike as it was more recently and the back of the bike as it was further in the past, when the bike was farther away. Sometimes, this same effect can make objects appear warped. Related: What if Earth shared its orbit with another planet? When you walk in the rain, you might notice that you get wetter in front than in back.

As you walk into the rain, you encounter more raindrops than you would standing still, but the front of you protects the back of you from those extra raindrops. Something similar would happen if you were moving at near the speed of light, Kortemeyer said. That's because light sometimes behaves like a collection of particles, called photons, which are like little droplets of light.

As you move toward an object in the computer game, it appears brighter than it does when you're standing still, because you're walking into its photons. This is called the searchlight effect. You will have been gone for a total of 9 Earth-years and about 1. Read more about the finicky nature of time here.

Care about supporting clean energy adoption? Find out how much money and planet! By signing up through this link , Futurism. Share This Article. So, if mass can't travel at the speed of light, how come light can? Light is made up of photons, which are massless particles and therefore they don't require energy to move. Time dilation. Time slows down as you approach the speed of light and when you reach it, time stops.

For a photon, there is no time, everything happens instantaneously. Trying to make a photon go faster than the speed of light is like bringing your car to a stop and trying to go slower. Time dilation affects us all the time in everyday life, but its effects are so small we can't see it.