An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

Visible radiation emitted when → charged particles pass through a transparent medium faster than the speed of light in that medium.

Etymology (EN): Named after Pavel A. Čerenkov (1904-1990), Russian physicist, who discovered the phenomenon. He shared the Nobel prize 1958 in physics
with Ilya Frank and Igor Tamm, who in 1937 gave the theoretical explanation for this radiation.