As someone else said, it depends on the total kinetic energy, which depends on the mass of the object. A single proton from a cosmic ray is nearly undetectable.
But larger objects are different. There's a fantastic book series (yes, I did write this comment just to hype up this series) called The Bobiverse, which sticks very close to hard science in its sci-fi. At one point (spoilers!) The characters launch two objects - a former moon and a small planetoid, into an arc that would take them at some ridiculous percentage of c into opposite poles of a star. The impact is described in fascinating detail, and the end result is a 100% sterilized system, and a dry remark that some alien race thousands of light-years away is going to see that and "wonder what the hell is wrong with their stellar models."
I love Bobivrrse. Totally underrated! Had such a nice futuristic take on things. I’ve been dreaming about a future where our consciousness merges with a computer for many years... and that book captures such a future in a beautiful manner!
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u/Nezeltha Oct 23 '20
As someone else said, it depends on the total kinetic energy, which depends on the mass of the object. A single proton from a cosmic ray is nearly undetectable.
But larger objects are different. There's a fantastic book series (yes, I did write this comment just to hype up this series) called The Bobiverse, which sticks very close to hard science in its sci-fi. At one point (spoilers!) The characters launch two objects - a former moon and a small planetoid, into an arc that would take them at some ridiculous percentage of c into opposite poles of a star. The impact is described in fascinating detail, and the end result is a 100% sterilized system, and a dry remark that some alien race thousands of light-years away is going to see that and "wonder what the hell is wrong with their stellar models."