![]() What does move faster than c is the place where the photons hit the object … which is not itself a thing, and does not carry any information (or anything else) along its path, and thus is not bound by the rule in the first paragraph. In fact, nothing is accelerated, and no photon moves faster than c. No, photons are not accelerated past c in this scenario. Which part of the first quote did you fail to understand? Basically, the collection of photons are accelerated past the speed of light as the spot traverses both the surface and depth of the object. However, Einstein’s theory of special relativity does allow for instances where certain influences appear to travel faster than light without violating causality.Ĭonsider the following scenario: if a laser is swept across a distant object – in this case, the Moon – the spot of laser light will move across the object at a speed greater than c. It’s a cornerstone of modern physics that nothing in the Universe is faster than the speed of light (c). A case in point is the blue glow emitted by an underwater nuclear reactor.Ĭombined with the other approaches, it could allow scientists to gain a more complete picture of objects in our Solar System, and even distant cosmological bodies. ![]() It is also distinct from Cherenkov radiation – electromagnetic radiation emitted when charged particles pass through a medium at a speed greater than the speed of light in that medium. This sort of imaging technique is fundamentally different from direct observations (which relies on lens photography), radar, and conventional lidar. In the latter, shadows are observed passing between the bright star R Monocerotis and reflecting dust, at speeds so great that they create photonic booms that are visible for days or weeks. The laser could be swept across the surface thousands of times a second and the flashes recorded. In the former case, asteroids could be mapped out in detail using a laser beam and a telescope equipped with a high-speed camera. ![]() Photonic booms caused by laser sweeps could offer a new imaging technique for mapping out passing asteroids. In the second, the beam is swept across a “scattering planar wall or linear filament” – in this case, Hubble’s Variable Nebula. spots of light moving across the Moon and pulsar companions. The first involved a beam being swept across a scattering spherical object – i.e. The key is finding ways to generate them or observe them accurately.įor the purposes of his study, Nemiroff considered two example scenarios. Superluminal sweeps, he claims, could be used to reveal information on the 3-dimensional geometry and distance of stellar bodies like nearby planets, passing asteroids, and distant objects illuminated by pulsars. ![]() Out in the cosmos they last long enough to notice - but nobody has thought to look for them!” “Photonic booms happen around us quite frequently,” said Nemiroff in a press release, “but they are always too brief to notice. Much the same is true of fast-moving shadows, where the speed can be much faster and not restricted to the speed of light if the surface is angular.Īt a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle, Washington earlier this month, Nemiroff shared how these effects could be used to study the universe. Image Credit: HST/NASA/JPL.Īnother example occurs regularly in nature, where beams of light from a pulsar sweep across clouds of space-borne dust, creating a spherical shell of light and radiation that expands faster than c when it intersects a surface. Hubble’s Variable Nebula) by the Hubble space telescope. It is made possible by the fact that the spots contain no mass, thereby not violating the fundamental laws of Special Relativity. The resulting “photonic boom” occurs in the form of a flash, which is seen by the observer when the speed of the light drops from superluminal to below the speed of light.
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