if I were traveling at 90% of the speed of light ...?

Question

and a bright object were traveling towards me almost  head-on at the same speed, would I be able to see it?

After we passed and were moving away from each other, would I be able to see it recede or would it just seem to disappear?

Goblinboy765 · Accepted Answer

I don't think it's a matter of whether you would see it or not, get the hell out of its way!

OldPilot · Answer

Yes.  IF the object was directly ahead.  You would still see photons moving past at c.  Those ahead would be strongly Blue-shifted and those from behind would be strongly Red-shifted.

Steve is correct.

Lola is not.  Photons from objects off the path cannot get to you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity

Look at the diagram with the 2 cones.  Any object outside the cones cannot be seen.  The faster you go the narrower the cones get. At 90%c the cones would be very narrow.  True objects a LITTLE off your path would be visible (inside the cone), but that is a nit-pick.

Steve · Answer

Old Pilot got it right, but the blue shift and red shift would be so extreme at warp 0.90 that the frequencies would be above & below the visible light frequencies, and you would see nothing looking ahead or behind unless the object was radiating in frequencies that when shifted, would fall in the visible light range.

lazendicda2k0 · Answer

Human eye is not sufficiently fast to be able to track objects moving at 90% of c.

The speed of that object would still be bellow the speed of light, though.

Lola F · Answer

No, OldPilot did NOT get it exactly right, because there was no need for the proviso "IF it were directly ahead." Doppler issues aside, the oncoming object would be visible regardless of its trajectory.

if I were traveling at 90% of the speed of light ...?

5 Answers