Question

A spaceship is traveling toward the earth from the space colony on Asteroid 1040A. The ship is at the halfway point of the trip, passing Mars at a speed of 0.9c relative to the Mars frame of reference. At the same instant, a passenger on the spaceship receives a radio message from her boyfriend on 1040A and another from her sister on earth. According to the passenger on the ship, were these messages sent simultaneously or at different times? If at different times, which one was sent first? Explain your reason

Answer 1

The message (signal) coming from the earth was sent first.

Step-by-step explanation:

The radio messages reach Mars simultaneously, because the distance from Earth to Mars and that of from Mars to Asteroid is same. But the passenger in the spaceship is moving relative to Mars towards Earth and hence, the message from Earth reaches first.

According to passenger frame, the message (signal) coming from the Earth was sent first compared to message coming from Asteroid.