Beginner's thought experinment
Let's assume that a spacecraft moving at some speed, for demonstration let's say almost the speed of light, passes by a planet heading towards an other one 300.000 km away (rounded up). the planets are stationary just for our example.
An external observer would feel the trip lasting for about 1 second, but the astronaut inside the ship would feel it much less.
Q1
So would it be like, from the astronaut's point of view, he perceived these stationary objects (planets) pass by at a speed:
- equal and opposite from his, such as in classical mechanics (not likely. compering to the velocity of a light beam moving opposite to spacecraft)
- higher than light's, considering that objects 300.000 km apart pass by at less than a sec at his own perceived time (not likely. i suppose that his perception of space would be different).
- less than light's (straight deduction from eliminating (1) and (2) ???)
Q2
If the astronaut turned on a light bulb in the interior and the light spread radially in his reference frame, what would be the velocity of its light in the direction of spacecraft's velocity and opposite to that? Also relative to him and to an external observer