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The Red Shift Shifted
Ken Glasziou
"Although your spectroscopic estimations of astronomic velocities are fairly reliable when applied to the starry realms belonging to your superuniverse and its associate superuniverses, such reckonings with reference to the realms of outer space are wholly unreliable. Spectral lines are displaced from the normal towards the violet by an approaching star; likewise these lines are displaced towards the red by a receding star. Many influences interpose to make it appear that the recessional velocity of the external universes increases at the rate of more than one hundred miles a second for every million light-years increase in distance. By this method of reckoning, subsequent to the perfection of more powerful telescopes, it will appear that these far-distant systems are in flight from this part of the universe at the unbelievable rate of more than thirty thousand miles a second. But this apparent speed of recession is not real; it results from numerous factors of error embracing angles of observation and other time-space distortions." (134)
The supposed recessional velocities of many red-shifted celestial bodies have now increased sixfold more than the Urantia Papers' prediction, to almost the speed of light. Such velocities are calculated on the assumption that the red shift is solely due to recessional velocity. And by making this assumption, plus correcting apparent brightness for the red shift-based distance from us, objects such as high red shift quasars, apparently no larger than our solar system, come out as being brighter than thousands, and even millions of galaxies. Surely such an evidence-based finding should warn us that something may be wrong with the basic premises.
Unfortunately, if it is wrong then the structure of the widely-accepted Big Bang theory of universe origins is in jeopardy--for the original premise came from Hubble's 1929 conclusion, based on his observations with the new 100-inch telescope at Mt. Wilson, that all galaxies within its range were receding with a speed that increases with distance.
Among Hubble's early observations were his re-assessment of the nature of what were known as "white nebulae." He concluded that these were extra-galactic--that is outside of the Milky Way. He then showed that their red shift increased as the white nebula became fainter, from which he concluded the universe must be expanding.
It was immediately obvious that by calculating backwards from the recessional velocity of an expanding universe, one could estimate a point in time when that universe began. Hubble's original estimate was 500 million years ago. It became 2 billion years by the 1950's, 5 to 10 billion years by the 1960's, and now the average estimate is probably about 15 billion years.
How could all the matter in the universe originate from a tiny bubble in space? Einstein's e = mc2 indicated that matter could be derived from energy, Boltzmann had shown that a doubling of temperature will give a sixteen-fold increase in energy, and laboratory experiments had shown that a photon of light at sufficiently high energy can create an electron-positron pair. Couple that kind of evidence with an admission that the laws of physics, as we know them, must break down under the proposed conditions of temperature and energy density for the Big Bang, and low and behold, we have a situation where anything is possible. And so the Big Bang was born in about 1947 to become an almost fanatically-backed established concept on how we came to be.
But not all agree. For some, the many patches required to make a Big Bang model appear to work in computer modeling theories have spoiled the picture. And even with the patches, there remain observations like the quasar story that simply have no explanation in Big Bang theory. Early protesters were many plasma physicists who soon discovered how difficult it would be to present their objections.
One of the alternatives to account for the peculiarities of quasars simply says that they are not far distant objects but that most are actually in our local system of galaxies.
This hypothesis requires the rejection of the concept that the red shift is solely due to the recessional velocity of a celestial body. In doing so it raises serious questions for the Big Bang hypothesis of universe origins. A reason for this challenge was the observation that maps of galaxies made from data obtained from radio telescopes often show two lobes of radio frequency radiation situated at right angles to the axis of disk-shaped galaxies and immediately adjacent to their center. (see Figure 3) Jets from the galaxy center were often observed to pass through the lobes. Some times it was noticed that pairs of quasars were located at exactly the same place as the two lobes of radio frequency radiation. For many years it had been concluded that the radio frequency lobes provided evidence that matter was being ejected from the galaxies. So why should it not be that the quasars were evidence for the same thing.?
The answer by the Big Bang proponents was that the quasars are actually in the far distant background way beyond the galaxy, so it is mere coincidence that they appear to be located in the same area as the radio frequency lobes. Further evidence showed that this kind of combination of galaxy, radio frequency or X-ray lobes and quasars was common in Seyfert galaxies--galaxies which have a highly active center. (see Figures 4 and 5)
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