Ok, we all know light is constant no matter what, but we also know that light coming at us from stars are red-shifted due to the Dopler affect.
So my question is this:
What is it REALLY like to travel at extremely high speeds, such as close to the speed of light? It seems to me that if light coming at you from sources moving away from you would red-shift, at some point, they would shift to infrared, then eventually visible light would look like radio waves. But at the same time, higher frequencies such as x-rays, alpha, beta and gama rays would become visible light as you moved away from it.
In front of you, the visible light would blue-shift. Eventually, visible light would become harmful radiation, radio waves would become visible, and harmful radiation would probably kill you.
The only thing that would look normal would be when you look to the side.
Am I off base with this idea?
2007-01-19 05:51:32 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Two other effects you would notice would be the apparent curving of objects in the direction of your travel, sort of like creating a pipe; the other effect are the gravitation changes you would be causing since as you approach c your mass is increasing.
HTH
Charles
2007-01-19 06:10:43 · answer #1 · answered by Charles 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your assertions are correct. Radio waves would eventually have an infinite wavelength, and be undetectable; blue light would get redder and redder, eventually becoming invisible, but higher frequency waves then become visible, and so on. However, as UV light got to the visible wavelengths, it would be no more dangerous as visible light is now.
But, there is a limit. When all the energy from a star or galaxy appears to drop to zero (that is, infinite wavelength) because the galaxy or star is receding AT the speed of light, we no longer can perceive it. Hence, that is the limit of the observable universe, no matter how hard or how long we look and no matter the size of our observation device.
2007-01-19 07:41:08 · answer #2 · answered by David A 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Actually, you're not only not off-base, you've actually understated the weirdness of the appearance of relativistic travel. Here's a site that gives chapter and verse that I just pulled off of Google.
http://www.anu.edu.au/Physics/Searle/
I'm sure you can find many others, if you put in something like relativistic distortion. General relativity makes things look even stranger (check out Andrew Hamilton's GR website at the University of Colorado at Boulder)
2007-01-19 05:59:06 · answer #3 · answered by M-M 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If motion is relative to the frame of reference we are moving relatively to light at the speed of 3 x10^8 meters per second.It all depends how one observes relative motion.
If light folows the same rules as a wave it is possible that we are NOT observing a doppler redshift but a Wave dispersion effect thru the substance of space.This would mimic the redshift asummed as the Doppler Effect.
2007-01-19 08:22:22 · answer #4 · answered by goring 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The latest theories say that actually light would condense into "tunnel-vision" at relativistic speeds. So to the sides you would see nothing.
Don't forget the effects of time-dilation when you are traveling that fast. your interaction with energy in the universe will be radically altered by the fact your time will be much much slower than the universe's.
2007-01-19 07:10:08 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
In case anyone's wondering, the Doppler Effect only changes the perceived wavelength; the velocity is always the same.
2007-01-19 06:29:57 · answer #6 · answered by hznfrst 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not at all. There is a cute discussion of this in Larry Niven's short story Neutron Star.
2007-01-19 05:58:09 · answer #7 · answered by novangelis 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋