Near-Light Speed: Visualisation · Signals from the Periphery

← Intro 中文

Speed

0.900 c

Lorentz γ

2.29

Sky ahead

26°

Ahead ×D

×4.36

Behind

×0.23

1 yr aboard

2.29 yr

Near-Light Speed · SR
cos θ′ = (cos θ + β)/(1 + β cos θ)
D ahead = √((1+β)/(1−β))
Brightness · × D² (beaming)
Sky ahead at 0.9 c · 26°
Michelson-Morley 1887 · Einstein 1905

Component

…

Aberration, live

cos θ′ = (cos θ + β)/(1 + β cos θ)

θ = 90° → θ′ = 25.8°: half the sky, folded ahead

Speed

time dilationγ = 2.29

View

Speed preset

Controls

Speed0.900 c

logarithmic in 1−β, so the last sliver below c stays usable; γ climbs without limit

Roll0.4×

a slow roll about the velocity axis, purely for the sense of motion

Display

Doppler colour

Beaming (headlight)

Compression cone

Dust streaks

Component labels

Readout · live

Speed β

…

Lorentz factor γ

…

Sky-ahead cone

…

Frequency ahead

…

Frequency behind

…

Brightness ahead

…

Brightness behind

…

1 year aboard

…

α Centauri, contracted

…

Three effects, one premise

Every strangeness on screen is the same premise applied three ways. Because light reaches you at c no matter your speed, arrival directions must fold forward (aberration), wave crests must arrive compressed ahead and stretched astern (Doppler), and the energy delivered per second must pile up in the bow (beaming, ×D² on a star). One postulate, three consequences, zero extra assumptions.

What is exact vs stylised

Exact: at your β the aberration formula sets every star’s direction, the Doppler factor D at the received angle sets its colour, γ sets the clocks, and the brightness readout prints the point-source law, ×D². Stylised: on screen a star point is lit as D^2.2 capped at 6 and sized as D^0.9, so above about 0.67 c the forward disc stops brightening while the readout keeps climbing: the readout carries the exact law, the picture only keeps the sky readable. The blackbody palette and the eye’s visible-band roll-off (into infrared and ultraviolet) are good approximations, not a calibrated spectrum; the Milky Way band is a procedural prop, not a catalogue; the dust streaks and roll are motion cues; and a warp bubble’s calm sky is the standard theoretical expectation for metric propulsion, labelled Theoretical.

…1 / 8

…

drag to look around · scroll = field of view · click the skydrag to look around · pinch = field of view · tap the sky