Last week, New Scientist came out with an article explaining why warp speed would kill the crew of the Enterprise. The article covers work done by William Edelstein at Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, who presented his findings at the American Physical Society in Washington. He argues that as a ship like the Enterprise approaches the speed of light, the interstellar hydrogen become powerful radiation beams that could kill the entire crew of the ship.
As much as we tend to think that space is, well, just empty space, there are some hydrogen atoms that float within it. Not a lot, mind you, but they’re there. There are between one and two hydrogen atoms in a cubic centimeter for normal interstellar space (hydrogen exists largely in its neutral atomic state in space, but can also exist as molecular hydrogen, H2), according to various sources. All in all, if we assume 1.5 hydrogen atoms (on average) per cubic centimeter, that means a starship like the Enterprise-D encounters roughly 415,000,000 atoms of hydrogen in only one c.c. in front of its saucer section alone (from the height by the width of the saucer section). If what Edelstein say is true, then that’s a lot of “death rays” shooting at the ship at warp speed.
At the risk of sounding particularly nerdy, I was always under the impression that the ship actually remained stationary while the warp engines expanded the space behind them while contracting the space in front of them, as explained by physicists who wrote books on how “warp engines” might work. So in essence, the Enterprise is not really moving at all. I am assuming that all of the hydrogen within the “warp bubble” surrounding the Enterprise move with it. But what about all of the hydrogen between the ship and the destination? If the space in front of the ship is contracted in order to propel the ship, then the Enterprise never really comes in contact with that hydrogen. Edelstein’s case wouldn’t necessarily apply to Star Trek ships then.
I would imagine that this is a bigger issue at impulse (sub-light) speeds, because the Enterprise in this case is really moving. According to Wiki-entertainment (my trusty source for Star Trek tidbits), impulse speeds can be as fast as eighty percent the speed of light. That’s pretty fast (why does it always look so slow on the shows?), and I’m quite sure an object travelling at those speeds is subject to Einstein’s relativistic treatment. Ignoring the increase in mass of the ship (which is getting somewhat near twice the mass, by the way), I would think that even at this speed the kinetic energy of the hydrogen would increase as Edelstein describes. I have no idea how many sieverts of radiation this translates to, but I assume it’s enough to do some real damage.
Either way, better get those deflector shields up. Looks like Riker’s not looking forward to all that hydrogen.
