look out
there's an object hurtling toward earth
at the speed of light
and no it's not a comet or an asteroid
yeah
it's a marshmallow
how could a marshmallow ever go this
fast
what would happen to it as it entered
the atmosphere
and what kind of damage would it do to
our planet
this is what if and here's what would
happen if a marshmallow hit the earth at
the speed of light
early versions of the marshmallow were
first eaten as far back as ancient egypt
but in the 1950s these sweets made from
sugar water and gelatin
exploded in popularity
in the united states alone about 40
million kilograms are sold every year
and over half of all marshmallows sold
during the summer months are roasted
over a campfire
and then squished between chocolate and
graham crackers
some more
well i'd like some more of that myself
so let's see what happens when we make
the most epic s'more possible
time to send this fluffy treat hurtling
toward earth at an impossible speed
uh warning to all the alpha phobes out
there
things could get gooey
[Music]
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now get a graham cracker and some
chocolate bars the only thing hotter
than this deal is the marshmallow flying
right at you
in a vacuum like outer space the speed
of light is 299
792 kilometers per second that's so fast
that an object traveling at that speed
could circle the earth seven and a half
times in one second
as far as we know no object can travel
faster than light
that's because the faster an object
moves
the more its mass increases
if an object moved at the speed of light
its mass would become
infinite
and to move an object with infinite mass
would require an infinite amount of
energy
and therefore
it's impossible
until now
if you were an astronaut on the
international space station
who could blame you for feeling the
primal call of a good s'more
it would be a perfect way to pass an
idle summertime evening
420 kilometers above the surface of the
earth
but don't worry you wouldn't need to
light a campfire on board the iss
these space station oven toasted
marshmallows would be completely
harmless
except wait
one is missing
if a marshmallow escaped the pressurized
environment of the iss it would start to
expand
that's because marshmallows have small
bubbles of air trapped inside them
on earth the outward pressure of these
air bubbles and the inward pressure of
the surrounding air
reach a stability that results in a
normal looking marshmallow
but in the vacuum of space
with no surrounding air pressure
the air bubbles inside the marshmallow
would expand
that would make it puff up even larger
now our misshapen marshmallow would set
its sights on earth
and here's where the impossible would
happen
the marshmallow would begin to travel at
99.9 percent the speed of light
reaching the earth's surface in less
than a millisecond
okay how about we roll things back and
follow the action in slow motion
as the marshmallow enters our atmosphere
it would begin to slam into the
atmospheric particles
at this ridiculous speed these particles
would actually punch into the
marshmallow and stay there
so the marshmallow would actually gain
weight as it hurtled toward earth
this highly energetic scenario would
most likely cause the marshmallow to rip
apart
this would be a saving grace for us down
below because it would create explosions
that would dissipate the energy during
its trajectory
but if that didn't happen
this once fluffy object
would hit the ground with a lot of force
take the chelyabinsk meteorite as an
example
this meteorite exploded at a height of
somewhere between 19 and 24 kilometers
over russia in 2013
with a mass of 11 000 tons
the overhead explosion injured 1 000
people
our beloved marshmallow moving at the
impossibly fast rate of 99.9 the speed
of light
would slam into earth with a force
almost four times more powerful than
what occurred during the chelyabinsk
event
and it wouldn't hit the ground as a soft
sticky substance either
if it managed to avoid completely
burning up in the atmosphere
the high temperature journey would cause
the carbon in the marshmallow to darken
and harden
converting it to graphite
the damage that this tasty treat turned
meteorite could inflict upon earth
would depend on where it landed
if it remained intact and smacked right
down into new york city
a 2019 nasa simulation estimated
it could result in the death of over 1.3
million people
okay maybe nasa didn't actually simulate
the impact of a marshmallow meteorite
traveling at the speed of light
their simulation was a much larger 60
meter sugar-free asteroid entering
earth's atmosphere
at a comparatively slow 19 kilometers
per second
our marshmallow would likely be less
powerful than this asteroid but it would
grow in danger as air atoms would be
punched into it during its trajectory
and with more mass comes a greater
impact force
you know it makes you wonder what else
could we launch at the speed of light
toward earth
maybe a turkey
but
that's a story for another
what if