July 28, 1904 - Birth of Pavel Cherenkov, discoverer of the radiation that bears his name

Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, in 1932, began studying the luminescence emitted by certain liquids when irradiated by gamma rays and, two years later, observed the emission of blue light from a bottle of water subjected to radioactive bombardment. From his analysis, he deduced that this effect consists of the emission of a bluish light from a liquid when electrons or other charged atomic particles move through the liquid at speeds faster than the speed of light. It proved to be of great importance in later experimental work in nuclear physics and for the study of cosmic rays. For this reason, it was called the "Cherenkov effect".

It is a type of shock wave that produces the bluish glow characteristic of nuclear reactors.

In 1958, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, together with the Soviet physicists Ilya Frank and Igor Tamm, for the discovery and interpretation of Cherenkov radiation.

If you want to know more about this scientist, click here: Pavel Cherenkov