Regarding nebulae

[HwyThunder]

From our distant observation point a nebula appears cloud-like. What would it be like to travel through a nebula? Would it seem like one was in a cloud, or would the particles be so sparsely distributed that it would appear to be open space?

[Chris Peterson]

From our distant observation point a nebula appears cloud-like. What would it be like to travel through a nebula? Would it seem like one was in a cloud, or would the particles be so sparsely distributed that it would appear to be open space?

Nebulas are still hard vacuums. From inside, the level of the background would be slightly higher (the sky would be slightly less black). Flying into one, or living in one, might not be apparent at all without instruments.

No hiding from angry Klingons in nebulas, like WW2 dogfighters in the clouds.

[geckzilla]

Some of those star-forming regions are pretty dense, though. Take the dogfight to a cosmic scale with many lightyears between one viewpoint to another, and things could be significantly obscured. I don't doubt that someone inside a dust cloud dense enough that the dust is cold would have issues seeing out of it. If the dust is cold, it's not receiving any light.

[Chris Peterson]

Some of those star-forming regions are pretty dense, though. Take the dogfight to a cosmic scale with many lightyears between one viewpoint to another, and things could be significantly obscured. I don't doubt that someone inside a dust cloud dense enough that the dust is cold would have issues seeing out of it. If the dust is cold, it's not receiving any light.

Sure, something like Bok globules. And we do see nebulas that we can't easily see through. But as you say, we're talking light years. And in the absence of FTL rockets, light year scale dogfights are pretty unexciting.

[neufer]

Some of those star-forming regions are pretty dense, though. Take the dogfight to a cosmic scale with many lightyears between one viewpoint to another, and things could be significantly obscured. I don't doubt that someone inside a dust cloud dense enough that the dust is cold would have issues seeing out of it. If the dust is cold, it's not receiving any light.

Sure, something like Bok globules. And we do see nebulas that we can't easily see through.

But as you say, we're talking light years. And in the absence of FTL rockets, light year scale dogfights are pretty unexciting.

Unexciting for an outside observer, perhaps.

But for the participants zooming around at ~0.999999999998c
a light year can be traversed in about a minute.

[Chris Peterson]

Some of those star-forming regions are pretty dense, though. Take the dogfight to a cosmic scale with many lightyears between one viewpoint to another, and things could be significantly obscured. I don't doubt that someone inside a dust cloud dense enough that the dust is cold would have issues seeing out of it. If the dust is cold, it's not receiving any light.

Sure, something like Bok globules. And we do see nebulas that we can't easily see through.

But as you say, we're talking light years. And in the absence of FTL rockets, light year scale dogfights are pretty unexciting.

Unexciting for an outside observer, perhaps.

But for the participants zooming around at ~0.999999999996c
a light year can be traversed in about a minute.

True... although when you look at the time relationship between two objects each traveling at relativistic speeds, from each other's frames, it gets awfully complicated.

[neufer]

Sure, something like Bok globules. And we do see nebulas that we can't easily see through.

But as you say, we're talking light years. And in the absence of FTL rockets, light year scale dogfights are pretty unexciting.

Unexciting for an outside observer, perhaps.

But for the participants zooming around at ~0.999999999998c
a light year can be traversed in about a minute.

True... although when you look at the time relationship between two objects each
traveling at relativistic speeds, from each other's frames, it gets awfully complicated.

---

.
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Well...that's what makes it exciting

[Join The Space Force.]

[neufer]

Some of those star-forming regions are pretty dense, though. Take the dogfight to a cosmic scale with many lightyears between one viewpoint to another, and things could be significantly obscured. I don't doubt that someone inside a dust cloud dense enough that the dust is cold would have issues seeing out of it. If the dust is cold, it's not receiving any light.

Sure, something like Bok globules. And we do see nebulas that we can't easily see through.

But as you say, we're talking light years. And in the absence of FTL rockets, light year scale dogfights are pretty unexciting.

Unexciting for an outside observer, perhaps.

But for the participants zooming around at ~0.999999999998c
a light year can be traversed in about a minute.

Fun fact: A relativistic [Space Force] dog fighter circling around a radius of 1 lyr

• undergoes a centrifugal force of ~ 1 g:
  
  V²/R = c²/(c year) = 300,000,000m/s / 31,000,000sec ~ 9.81m/s²