In nuclear reactors which are in a medium, there exists something called Cherenkov Radiation. This phenomenon is caused by the charged particles that are released by the reactors at high energies. They move so fast that they surpass the phase velocity of light in the medium surrounding the reactors (in this case water). The particles emit electromagnetic radiation in the form of a bluish light. This radiation is what happens when particles break the medium-specific phase velocity of light "barrier".
It was named after Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov for his 1958 Nobel Prize winning research on the subject. A neat example is shown in this video: http://youtu.be/mgNwtepP-6M
0 comments:
Post a Comment