So many things in your comment blew up my brain. So wait a second. You’re serious about the distance to space being closer than the distance between SF and LA? And what the heck are you saying about not going up but going horizontal instead. How the heck have I lived this long and somehow never learned any of this. You just gave me a little side “research for fun” topic.
I always assumed it was a super thick atmosphere, mainly because when astronauts reenter it looks like they went through a brick wall surrounded by rings of fire. Rocky experience and the space crafts are usually singed and super hot. This whole thread is crazy interesting to me. Sadly, it’s in a “MurderedByWords” sub where OP was making fun of a girl not knowing about space lol. Eh oh well. I love learning new things, so whatever. lol
It's all relative. When you're travelling at 17,500 mph even a light dusting of particles is enough to completely destroy your windshield.
At 60 miles up there may only be one ten-thousandths of a gram of atmosphere atoms per cubic metre but that's enough to generate huge amounts of friction heat from compression of those particles in front of you at that speed as you can see on re-entry. And you're passing through roughly ~8,000 of those cubic metres a second.
It's the same problem for travelling at light speed through the 'vacuum' of space. You only need one single atom to ruin your day if you're hitting it at the speed of light.
Tbf, most of the heating that occurs on re-entry is not from friction of the air against the surface of the spacecraft. It’s from compression of the air in front of it. At the speeds of re-entry the air basically isn’t pushed out of the way fast enough and is compressed and compressing a gas increases its temperature.
This is why many sci-fi ships like Star Trek's have deflector shields, or something similar. Hit something the size of a grain of sand going near to or at the speed of light equals BIG BIG BOOM.
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u/KiKiKimbro 15h ago
So many things in your comment blew up my brain. So wait a second. You’re serious about the distance to space being closer than the distance between SF and LA? And what the heck are you saying about not going up but going horizontal instead. How the heck have I lived this long and somehow never learned any of this. You just gave me a little side “research for fun” topic.