Astronomers
have discovered that as stars move toward a telescope, they
appear to turn blue. Albert
Einstein discovered that the speed of light never
changes. Period. Light
speed never ever changes, even if what the light comes from is moving.
Since it never changes, the speed of the star can't add onto the speed
of the light from the star. Instead, the speed of the star adds energy
to the light. This energy causes the star to look like it's turned
blue. Actually, only its light has turned blue. This is called
blueshift.
From the opposite
side, the star moves away. Since the star's speed doesn't add onto
the speed of light, it also can't be subtracted from the speed of the light
from the star. That means that instead of adding energy, the light
loses energy. This makes the light turn red instead of blue.
This is called redshift.
But a star (or
another object that light is coming from) has to be moving fast to start
a blueshift or redshift. The other way to see blueshift or redshift
is if you're moving toward or away from a star at a high speed. Since
Koronis'
Berkeshire can fly faster than light, an astronomer watching the stars
would see them blueshifting as the ship flew toward them. If the
astronomer looked out toward the back of the ship, the stars would be redshifting.
If someone watched the ship come toward them then they would see it blueshift,
and if someone watched the ship fly away from them, they would see it redshift. |
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