What is the fastest thing in the world? Science answers!

Speed ​​is a pleasure for some people, and that’s exactly what happens to many Formula 1 drivers who drive at extreme speeds and strain their adrenaline with a variety of deadly dangers. Despite reaching speeds of up to 372 kilometers per hour, F1 cars are not the fastest objects in the world; There are some luxury cars that can actually run even faster.

The current fastest bike in the world, the Kawasaki Ninja H2R, can reach speeds of up to 400 kilometers per hour, but it’s still nowhere near the fastest thing in the world. The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) developed an unmanned aerial vehicle This vehicle, which can reach a speed of 11,854 km/h, is also not in the first place..

In order to travel to space, astronauts must use a spacecraft that can reach a speed of at least 28 thousand kilometers per hour; Re-entry capsules usually reach the same speed, but speeds of up to 39 thousand km/h were recorded during the return from the Apollo 10 mission.

Space probes were created by Earth civilization, not on our planet, and can travel at speeds of thousands of kilometers per hour. For example, Parker Solar Probe space probe reached 635 thousand kilometers per hour during its journey around the Sun. But none of these examples come close to the fastest thing on Earth.

“It was around 22.54. [no dia 29 de outubro de 2018]The Parker Solar Probe became the fastest human-made object relative to the Sun, exceeding 246,960 kilometers per hour as calculated by the mission team. This broke the record set by the German-American Helios 2 mission in April 1976. NASA commented in its official statement, “It will break its own records many times by reaching a maximum speed of approximately 692 thousand kilometers per hour in 2024.”

It is important to emphasize that, When we say ‘thing’, it can really be anything. For example, neutrinos and photons are the main candidates on this list. but they cannot be observed with the naked eye.

The fastest thing in the world

According to the Guinness Book of Records, no vehicle has ever reached the highest possible speed in the universe, that is, the speed of light – theoretically, it is impossible to reach this limit. But after all, isn’t light itself the fastest thing in the world?

Actually no. The speed is truly impressive, but scientists point out that light isn’t exactly a ‘thing’ because it has no mass. Others disagree and explain that light is both a wave and a particle, and that particles can be considered ‘things’.

In a message sent to the website Live SciencePhysicist John Matthews of the University of Utah says the problem becomes simpler if we consider the fastest thing in space: In this case, the answer is photons. However, this cannot happen on Earth because photons slow down when they reach the Earth’s atmosphere. – unless scientists create a vacuum chamber to replicate the space environment.

According to particle physicist Justin Vandenbroucke of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, The neutrino is the fastest thing in the world. In an experiment conducted at the South Pole, a group of scientists detected high-energy neutrinos in the ice. Subatomic particles have reached enough energy to move faster than the speed of light. In 2016, the same experiment produced the highest-energy neutrino ever detected.

To: Live SciencePhysicist Bill Louis from Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US said the subatomic particles in the experiment were the fastest ever observed by science. The question that remains is: If it is impossible to reach the speed of light, how did scientists achieve this feat?

scientists explain It is actually impossible for massive objects to reach the speed of light, but this would not be possible for something like a neutrino. These subatomic particles have almost no mass and can achieve high amounts of energy, thus reaching speeds close to the speed of light.

Vandenbroucke explains that if something moves at 99.99% of the speed of light, its rating is four 9s. However, the neutrino detected in 2016 is in the 33 9s category. The researcher also said that these superfast subatomic particles are formed in the ‘natural particle accelerators’ of the universe.

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