What Happens When Light Goes Boom? Part 1: The Scientist Who Stared at a Glow

April 15, 2026 Universe Today

What Happens When Light Goes Boom? Part 1: The Scientist Who Stared at a Glow
By Paul Sutter (https://ift.tt/jU6tdlx)

The Advanced Test Reactor at Idaho National Laboratory, glowing blue with Cherenkov radiation. Argonne National Laboratory. CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

In 1934, a Soviet physicist named Pavel Cherenkov shone gamma rays into a bottle of water and noticed a faint blue glow. So had others before him. They all shrugged and moved on. Cherenkov didn't. What he found — by refusing to dismiss something he didn't understand — turned into one of the most useful phenomena in modern physics.

April 16, 2026 at 07:36AM
via read more...

No comments

Subscribe to: Post Comments ( Atom )