4 ms·
Astronauts[1] also report seeing random flashes of light from time to time, believed to be due to high-energy particles interacting with their optical nerves, o
by thamer 6y ago
Astronauts[1] also report seeing random flashes of light from time to time, believed to be due to high-energy particles interacting with their optical nerves, or cells in the retina, or maybe neurons too. Space is not a very friendly environment.
This is somewhat similar – although on a much different scale – to when Anatoli Bugorski[2] had an accident in 1978 involving a beam of protons traveling at over 99% the speed of light going through his head. He also described it as a flash "brighter than a thousand suns".
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_ray_visual_phenomena https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_ray_visual_phenomena
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski
- Natfan 6y agoUnrelated tangent, but this is the third time in two days that I've seen Anatoli Burgorski be mentioned. Twice on HN, once on YT. I guess I'm just noticing his name more?
- dekhn 6y agoWhen I was a postdoc at berkeley I was talking to the head of the bioengineering department who mentioned the phenomena. He had actually written a paper in which he put an appropriate set of filters in front of a particle accelerator to ensure that a statistical photon was emitted at a specific frequency (IE, it output 1 photon/sec, although only on average). Then he sat in front of the filters at looked into the accelerator. https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/04/archives/space-lights-traced-to-cosmic-rays.html https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/04/archives/space-lights-tra... Still one of the most audacious things I've seen, but he was a good physicist and did the math right, so he wasn't being unsafe.