Immunity to relatavistic effects?

[Kadin]

Most people, I think, are familiar with some of the staples of Relativity and Cee--in particular, theoretical objects traveling at speeds close to Cee increasing in apparent mass and slowing of local time, et cetera.
What I'm curious about is what makes photons, 'gravitons,' and other light-speed and near-light-speed particles/waves immune to these effects. Why is it that a photon in a vacuum doesn't have infinite mass, and why don't cosmic rays passing through our solar system constantly yank bodies wildly free of their orbits and gravitationally shred our planet as they pass through?

[alainprice]

Let's only look at one thing: time.

If you are travelling at c, you cannot experience time. So photons do not age. For any particle that does not experience time, mass is not an issue. You need time to measure mass and these guys just don't have any time or mass.

Also, figure a cosmic ray hits the earth as hard as a mosquito hits a windshield. There is not enough power for it to destroy large amounts of matter. Since they come in at all angles, we don't need to worry about the earth's orbit either.

[Jens]

What I'm curious about is what makes photons, 'gravitons,' and other light-speed and near-light-speed particles/waves immune to these effects.

I think essentially it's because photons do not have mass.

[Celestial Mechanic]

I think essentially it's because photons do not have mass.

Agreed. As I like to put it: "Mass is what enables you to sit and wait."

[Jeff Root]

Nothing is immune to relativistic effects. The behavior of photons
and neutrinos are described just as accurately by general relativity
as massive particles are. The differences you note are not
differences that have anything to do with relativity, but simply
differences between different kinds of matter. Matter which does
not have mass cannot have an increase in its relativistic mass.
But it can have an increase in its relativistic energy and momentum.
And that is what happens. And massive particles can be viewed
the same way. Instead of saying that their relative mass changes
when they are in relative motion, it is preferred to say that their
relative energy and momentum change. That works the same way
for all particles.

But there is a fundamental difference between massive particles and
massless particles, which results in massive particles requiring force
to speed up or slow down, while massless particles always move at
the same, constant, universal speed, and force cannot be applied
to them.

Cosmic rays are energetic massive particles, but they don't have
anything like the quantity of energy you seem to think they have.
When a cosmic ray hits Earth's atmosphere, the particle is destroyed,
creating other particles travelling in the same direction, some of
which can reach the ground. Some can travel through hundreds of
feet of rock, not because they have tremendously high energy, but
because they have so little ability to interact with other matter.
I think the very highest-energy cosmic rays detected had energies
comparable to a baseball thrown at a few tens of miles per hour.
That is an enormous amount of energy to pack into a single nucleus,
but it isn't going rip the Earth or even a small asteroid apart. What
could happen when such a cosmic ray particle hits a small asteroid
is that a few atoms of the asteroid will be knocked loose, flying off
at much lower speed in approximately the direction the cosmic ray
was headed, or, in a larger asteroid, the asteroid will be given a very
tiny push, and will be heated locally by a small amount. It might be
enough to cause a visible flash, like a vey tiny flashbulb going off.

Most cosmic rays have much less energy than that.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[dhd40]

... And massive particles can be viewed
the same way. Instead of saying that their relative mass changes
when they are in relative motion, it is preferred to say that their
relative energy and momentum change. That works the same way
for all particles. ...

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

I like this, you know, I simply like this !

[Argos]

and why don't cosmic rays passing through our solar system constantly yank bodies wildly free of their orbits and gravitationally shred our planet as they pass through?

Because they are so tiny. Their rest mass is what determines their capacity to exert gravitational influence. Their rest mass never increases, no matter how fast they go. You are using the deprecated concept of relativistic mass. Pay attention to what Jeff said, and do a Google search on 'relativistic mass'.