3 ms·

They absolutely do get red shifted (or blue shifted). In this regard they are no more special than any other electromagnetic wave. That said I don't believe w

They absolutely do get red shifted (or blue shifted). In this regard they are no more special than any other electromagnetic wave. That said I don't believe we've got any kind of classification for higher energy EM waves than "gamma rays" so anything that red-shifted to gamma rays would be gamma rays originally anyway.

hinkley 4y ago
However if you travel at relativistic speeds it’s possible and likely for particles in the ligh cone ahead of you to be blue shifted to gamma. It’s a major thing we seem to leave of when talking about interstellar travel. It’s one of the lovely things about the Alcubierre drive, if anyone ever figures out how to make it work that is. You’re traveling in a bubble that is moving at slower speeds, so the light cone is hitting you with fairly mild blue shifting instead of both barrels.
- roywiggins 4y ago
  Maybe rather bad for your destination though: "were an Alcubierre-driven ship to decelerate from superluminal speed, the particles that its bubble had gathered in transit would be released in energetic outbursts akin to the infinitely-blueshifted radiation hypothesized to occur at the inner event horizon of a Kerr black hole; forward-facing particles would thereby be energetic enough to destroy anything at the destination directly in front of the ship" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive#Damaging_effect_on_destination https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive#Damaging_effe...
  - hinkley 4y ago
    Oh my. So 'back-in parking only' unless you want to end up in whatever the interstellar equivalent of The Hague ends up being.
    - lazide 4y ago
      Decelerating at sub-light speeds will also require massive high energy exhaust plumes if we’re using any traditional drives for that, which if a ‘warp’ drive is possible, we’d likely still need. So death from both ends, basically. Probably best to wait for us to land to say hi, or nuke us from far enough away the mess doesn’t get in their hair.
  - LargoLasskhyfv 4y ago
    IIRC that is very similar to how C.J.Cherryh described the 'jump mechanism' in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance%E2%80%93Union_universe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance%E2%80%93Union_univers... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chanur_novels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chanur_novels Though it mainly applied to matter caught in the 'field/bubble' during acceleration. In those fictional universes they got around this by designating entry- and exit-zones in the star systems, coordinated by automated buoys stationed there, to circumvent communication delays. If you didn't have the right 'passport'... err codes to authenticate, you'd fly blind, and possibly be hunted by the space traffic police for grave violation of all sorts of traffic rules. If you were military, you shat on it, and even used it as a weapon.

hinkley 4y ago

However if you travel at relativistic speeds it’s possible and likely for particles in the ligh cone ahead of you to be blue shifted to gamma. It’s a major thing we seem to leave of when talking about interstellar travel. It’s one of the lovely things about the Alcubierre drive, if anyone ever figures out how to make it work that is. You’re traveling in a bubble that is moving at slower speeds, so the light cone is hitting you with fairly mild blue shifting instead of both barrels.

roywiggins 4y ago
Maybe rather bad for your destination though: "were an Alcubierre-driven ship to decelerate from superluminal speed, the particles that its bubble had gathered in transit would be released in energetic outbursts akin to the infinitely-blueshifted radiation hypothesized to occur at the inner event horizon of a Kerr black hole; forward-facing particles would thereby be energetic enough to destroy anything at the destination directly in front of the ship" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive#Damaging_effect_on_destination https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive#Damaging_effe...
- hinkley 4y ago
  Oh my. So 'back-in parking only' unless you want to end up in whatever the interstellar equivalent of The Hague ends up being.
  - lazide 4y ago
    Decelerating at sub-light speeds will also require massive high energy exhaust plumes if we’re using any traditional drives for that, which if a ‘warp’ drive is possible, we’d likely still need. So death from both ends, basically. Probably best to wait for us to land to say hi, or nuke us from far enough away the mess doesn’t get in their hair.
- LargoLasskhyfv 4y ago
  IIRC that is very similar to how C.J.Cherryh described the 'jump mechanism' in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance%E2%80%93Union_universe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance%E2%80%93Union_univers... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chanur_novels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chanur_novels Though it mainly applied to matter caught in the 'field/bubble' during acceleration. In those fictional universes they got around this by designating entry- and exit-zones in the star systems, coordinated by automated buoys stationed there, to circumvent communication delays. If you didn't have the right 'passport'... err codes to authenticate, you'd fly blind, and possibly be hunted by the space traffic police for grave violation of all sorts of traffic rules. If you were military, you shat on it, and even used it as a weapon.