WOLFRAM|DEMONSTRATIONS PROJECT

Relativistic Aberration and Doppler Shift

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scaled velocity β
0.7
number of rays
50
show Doppler effect
Suppose a specific number of evenly distributed light rays is incident on an observer at rest. For a moving observer at the given location, with scaled velocity
β=v/c
, these light rays appear to be tilted in the direction of motion (aberration), as indicated by the yellow triangle. As a result of the Doppler effect, light that comes from the direction of motion is blue-shifted, while light from the opposite direction is red-shifted.