In2-MeC

IBSA (ISKCON Bhaktivedanta Sadhana Asrama), Govardhana, India
10 February 2004

Redshift

What is redshift?

From the Internet

What does the cosmos really look like? How big is it? How old is it? How did it begin? As this article shows, the evidence of the senses in the form of scientific observation offers far from conclusive answers to these questions.

If the lines in the spectrum of the light from a star or galaxy appear at a lower frequency (shifted toward the red) than where they are observed in the spectrum of the Sun, we say this object has "positive redshift". The accepted explanation for this effect is that the object must be moving away from us. This interpretation is drawn by analogy with the downward shift in the pitch of a train whistle as it passes through a railroad crossing and then speeds away from us. The question is: "Is recessional velocity the only thing that can produce a redshift, as modern astrophysicists presume?" It has become clear that the answer to that question is an emphatic "NO!"

If the wavelength of an absorption line in an object's observed spectrum appears at a wavelength that is, say, 1. 56 times its "normal wavelength" (the wavelength at which it is observed in a laboratory experiment here on Earth), then we say this object has a "positive redshift of z = 0. 56". The "z value" is simply the observed fractional increase in the wavelength of the spectral lines. The accepted interpretation of this is to say that this object must therefore be receding from us at 56% of the speed of light or 0. 56 x 300,000 km/sec. Mainstream astrophysicists believe that recessional velocity, v = cz. This object, therefore, must be very far away from Earth.

But a high redshift value does not necessarily mean the object is far away. There is another, more important cause of high redshift values.

Halton Arp

Halton C. Arp is a professional astronomer who, earlier in his career, was Edwin Hubble's assistant. He has earned the Helen B. Warner prize, the Newcomb Cleveland award and the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award. For years he worked at the Mt. Palomar and Mt. Wilson observatories. While there, he developed his well known catalog of "Peculiar Galaxies" that are misshapen or irregular in appearance.

American astronomer in "professional exile" at Germany's Max Planck Institute. He was shut out of astronomy in the USA because his findings contradict mainstream theories about the origin, age and size of the universe.

Arp discovered, by taking photographs through the big telescopes, that many pairs of quasars ("quasi-stellar objects") which have extremely high redshift z values (and are therefore thought to be receding from us very rapidly--and thus must be located at a great distance from us) are physically associated with galaxies that have low redshift and are known to be relatively close by. Arp has photographs of many pairs of high redshift quasars that are symmetrically located on either side of what he suggests are their parent, low redshift galaxies. These pairings occur much more often than the probabilities of random placement would allow. Mainstream astrophysicists try to explain away Arp's observations of connected galaxies and quasars as being "illusions" or "coincidences of apparent location". But, the large number of physically associated quasars and low red shift galaxies that he has photographed and cataloged defies that evasion. It simply happens too often.

Because of Arp's photos, the assumption that high red shift objects have to be very far away --on which the "Big Bang" theory and all of "accepted cosmology" is based--is proven to be wrong! The Big Bang theory is therefore falsified.

NGC 4319 and Markarian 205

A prime example of Arp's challenge is the connected pair of objects NGC 4319 and Markarian 205.

Dr. Arp has shown in his book "Quasars, Redshifts and Controversies" that there is a physical connection between the barred spiral galaxy NGC 4319 and the quasar-like object Markarian 205. This connection is between two objects that have vastly different redshift values. Mainstream astronomers deny the existence of this physical link. They claim these two objects are not close together--they are "coincidentally aligned".

Instead of nominating him for a prize (and simultaneously reexamining their assumption that "redshift equals distance"), mainstream astronomers systematically denied publication of Arp's results and refused him telescope time. One would at least expect the "powers that be" to immediately turn the Chandra X-ray orbiting telescope, the Hubble space telescope, and all the big land based telescopes toward Arp's exciting discoveries in order to either confirm or disprove them once and for all. Instead, these objects have been completely excluded from examination. Official photographs are routinely cropped to exclude them. Those familiar with the Galileo story will remember the priests who refused to look through his telescope.

Evidence Says Arp is Right

An image taken by the Chandra orbiting x-ray telescope shows what may be exactly the quasar emission phenomenon Arp suggests is happening.

The official caption says:

Chandra Images Seething Cauldron of Starburst Galaxy

The M82 starburst galaxy photographed by the Chandra orbiting x-ray telescope.

Chandra X-ray Image of M82, at a distance of 11 million light years from Earth, is the nearest starburst galaxy. Massive stars are forming and expiring in M82 at a rate ten times higher than in our galaxy. The bright spots in the center are supernova remnants and X-ray binaries. These are some of the brightest such objects known. The luminosity of the X-ray binaries suggests that most contain a black hole. The diffuse X-ray light in the image extends over several thousand light years, and is caused by multimillion degree gas flowing out of M82. A close encounter with a large galaxy, M81, in the last 100 million years is thought to be the cause of the starburst activity. Image made with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS).

Notice that, even though no "black hole" has ever been directly observed, the presence of one is often proclaimed.

In the image shown above there is obviously a line of five or more high intensity, young, X-ray emitting objects being symmetrically formed along the spin axis of M82. No black-hole magic is needed. There is a high level of plasma activity - it is not just "multimillion degree gas". There are undoubtedly high amplitude electrical currents producing large pinch forces that create these objects.

If there is a black hole in the middle of everything, why is matter pouring OUT rather than IN? There is an old saying: "When you hear hoof beats, do not only look for zebras. " When there is a powerful emission of material occurring, it might be wise not to immediately postulate the presence of a black hole that sucks everything, including light, IN. There are many images taken by the Hubble space telescope available on the internet. Here is one example. The typical official commentary is shown (in color).

Hubble astronomers conducting research on a class of galaxies called ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRG) have discovered that over two dozen of these are found within "nests" of galaxies, apparently engaged in multiple collisions that lead to fiery pile-ups of three, four or even five galaxies smashing together.

If you read official explanations usually placed on images such as these, you will see a preoccupation with the DEATH of stars and descriptions of COLLIDING and MERGING and CANABALISING galaxies that are SMASHING together. In actuality it is highly likely, in view of Arp's observations, that what we are actually seeing most often is the birth of galaxies and quasars not their deaths. And, instead of collision, the separation of parent and offspring. Anyone looking at these images in an unbiased way will see "fireworks!" - the birth and ejection of new galaxies. And, if the universe is really expanding as Big Bang proponents say, everything should be getting farther away from everything else. Collisions of previously unrelated objects should be highly improbable.

Images of ten groupings of galaxies and quasars. Mainstream science claims the objects in each image are separated by huge distances.

Mainstream astronomy is presently trying to explain away a large set of high redshift quasars that are closely associated with low redshift galaxies as being optical illusions caused by "gravitational lensing". Here, below, are ten examples of such groupings. The only way such an optical illusion could occur is if Earth, a nearby galaxy, and a distant quasar (all three) precisely fall on a single straight line. Could this happen once? Surely. But dozens of times?! Not likely. In fact the probability is vanishingly small.

And if Halton Arp is correct, the quasars are not that far away in the first place.

These sets of objects are not illusions or mirages--rather, they are visual proof that Arp is indeed correct in what he says: Young, high redshift objects are ejected from the centers of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and Seyfert galaxies. The images show exactly that happening.

The most (in)famous of these supposed "mirages" is the so-called "Einstein Cross" which is simply another example of objects in the process of being formed and ejected from the nucleus of an active galaxy. Arp has observed plasma clouds (whose light is strongly redshifted) connecting the ejected objects in the Einstein Cross.

So, modern mainstream astronomy is full of "illusions" and "mirages" (their explanation of why we should not believe our eyes) and "strange and dark" energy, matter, "neutron stars" and "black holes", none of which have ever been seen or photographed but whose existence they continually invoke in order to save their otherwise failed theories. Their attitude is, "Don't believe what you see; believe what we tell you!"

Arp says we should believe our own eyes rather than the tall tales of black-holes, and gravitational lensing told by the defenders of mainstream astronomy and cosmology whose continued research funding depends on their not rocking the boat of established theory.

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