Re: speed of light

[brian whatcott <inet@INTELLISYS.NET>]

> > Has anyone looked for a reflected supernova flash off adjacent
> > stellar objects? (It would have to be a glancing reflection,
> > I imagine if one had the ..er.. 1988 event in mind?)
At 17:11 10/6/99 -0700, you responded:

> As the light from the SN1987A event expands in a spherical shell
> it illuminates the surrounding interstellar medium. By doing the
> geometry* (and trigonometry) on what should be seen at Earth of
> this reflection nebula you will see that an expanding circle of
> illumination should surround the star....
> Neat, eh?
>
> Leigh
>
> *Think about a sphere and an ellipsoid with the Earth at the
> other focus. Near the supernova the ellipsoid is
> indistinguishable from a paraboloid, but you will see a pretty
> neat geometry.

Neat.
If one takes the imaginary leap to an elastic membrane model
depressed with ponderous mass on the supernova's origin,
the ellipsoid of revolution for the perceived wavefront starts
to become capable of strange things, like demonstrating
superluminal velocity at angles removed from the straight
 ..er..helter-skelter shot.
(or so one can muse, over a glass of sherry)





brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK