"Alan Erskine" wrote in message . au...
When an aircraft reaches the speed of sound, a sonic boom is created; what
would happen if something reached the speed of light, would a 'light boom'
be created and what would be the effects?

There was an episode in Star Trek: The Next Generation which refered
to "chromatic detonation" when going into warp... Nice effect... But
anyway... since it's not possible to go at or over the light speed...

What would happen when you get close to the speed of light is a very
intense gamma ray radiation coming from the direction of travel, as
every single photon, proton, electron and nameitron move relatively to
the vehicule at close the speed of light. That's extreme doppler
effects! No idea how one could shield itself from this particle
bombardment, but anyway...

Even radio-waves would be shifted to higher frequencys, so you -might-
actually be able to really see the cosmic radiation background in
visual wavelenght at the right speed (could do the math but I'm lazy
today!)... Of course, you'd probably be dead or dying from radiation
sickness by that moment, so your last sight would really be The
Creation...