4

The Parker Solar Probe will move at 690,000 km/h (430,000 mph), or 0.064% the speed of light, at its closest approaches to the sun. Parker Solar Probe top speed

Will that be the highest speed yet achieved by a manufactured, visible-size object? If not, what is?

I have tagged this question assuming the highest speed will by something we send to space -- but I do not know that. It could as well be some kind of thing I have not thought of at all.m

Colin McLarty
  • 291

1 Answers1

1

According to this Wikipedia page, the current fastest macroscopic man-made object was a shell (mass about 0.1 mg) in an inertial confinement fusion capsule driven by the National Ignition Facility. This particle was measured to be travelling at a speed of $445000\text{m/s}$ or $0.0015c$.

Sam
  • 2,372