We all are familiar with the Doppler Effect. It is why when an emergency vehicle has the sirens on the pitch of the sirens drops as the vehicle passes you.
(The difference in speed between you and the emergency vehicle either compress or elongates the sound waves from the siren which changes the pitch of what you hear.)
Hubble space telescope was used to identify other galaxies and thanks you certain types of stars that burn with a known standard brightness. NASA scientists were then able to detect shifts in the standard color of the light to know what direction the other galaxies were moving in relation to us. This means that the Doppler Effect works with light waves too! (And now the science gets crazy)
The light from a galaxy moving away from us shifts to the red and a galaxy moving towards would shift to the violet. Just with sound the faster the speed towards or away from us the more the light would shift either towards red or violet. The closer you get to the speed of light in a direction away from the light source the light waves you see appear to elongate until it is no longer an energy wave. (As you accelerate away from the light source the visible light from the source would shift to red, then become detectable only in infrared and eventually as a radio wave until it was no longer detectable as a wave once you match light speed with the light wave.)
Here is the real question. The waves that were not detectable before because they were past violet... those will pass through the visible spectrum at some point. What would it look like? When the Gamma Ray background radiation that has been detected at every direction in the known universe comes in to focus as visible light, at least the portions of it you are moving away from, what do you see?
As you continue to accelerate towards the speed of light, the light that was traveling perpendicular to you would not shift on the spectrum or at least not by as much as light traveling in the same or opposite direction as you.
Imagine what we would see if there was a different perspective on the electro-magnetic spectrum.
(The difference in speed between you and the emergency vehicle either compress or elongates the sound waves from the siren which changes the pitch of what you hear.)
Hubble space telescope was used to identify other galaxies and thanks you certain types of stars that burn with a known standard brightness. NASA scientists were then able to detect shifts in the standard color of the light to know what direction the other galaxies were moving in relation to us. This means that the Doppler Effect works with light waves too! (And now the science gets crazy)
The light from a galaxy moving away from us shifts to the red and a galaxy moving towards would shift to the violet. Just with sound the faster the speed towards or away from us the more the light would shift either towards red or violet. The closer you get to the speed of light in a direction away from the light source the light waves you see appear to elongate until it is no longer an energy wave. (As you accelerate away from the light source the visible light from the source would shift to red, then become detectable only in infrared and eventually as a radio wave until it was no longer detectable as a wave once you match light speed with the light wave.)
As you continue to accelerate towards the speed of light, the light that was traveling perpendicular to you would not shift on the spectrum or at least not by as much as light traveling in the same or opposite direction as you.
Imagine what we would see if there was a different perspective on the electro-magnetic spectrum.
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