Science trivia of the day

[andygates]

Get above the atmosphere, where you're exposed to cosmic particles.  Close your eyes.  Those blue flashes you see are Cherenkov radiation - the photonic equivalent of a sonic boom - caused by cosmic particles moving through the liquid in your eyeballs at a speed greater than the speed of light in your eyeball. 

Comments

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, it certainly can be photographed. It was just the phenomenon of having it occur in your eyeballs - because outside the magnetosphere the cosmic ray particles can get to you - that tickled.

Ionizing radiation's bad, hm'kay ;)