February 12, 2014

TODAYS NEWS
One shift, two shift | red shift, blue shift

Doppler effect
This phenomena is a measured
lengthening (redshift) or
shortening (blueshift) of
wavelengths as the result of an
emitter is moving away from an
observer. Such changes are
more readily noticed by the
sound of an emergency
vehicle's siren sounding higher
pitched on approach rather
than as it speeds away.

Gravitational redshift
Occurs when photons-elementary particles of light-lose energy when escaping an
object's gravitational field. The
wavelengths are "stretched,"
proportionally, by the force of
gravity exerted on it.

Cosmological redshift

Don't believe everything you see

Whoever said, "looking up at the night sky is a journey back in
time," wasn't kidding.
The speed of light, an astounding 186,000 miles per second,
might seem like a lot, but in the context of the universe, it's
simply got a ways to go. Over the course of a year, light can travel
a distance of almost 5.9 trillion miles. Something often
overlooked is the time light takes to travel that distance: one year.
In other words, an object twinkling for the first time in Earth's
direction, located approximately 5.9 trillion miles away, wouldn't
be seen by astronomers until 365 days later. And the further the
object, the longer it will take.

Caused by the relativistic

expansion of the Universe.
Einstein's theory asserts that
the scale of spacetime itself is
expanding. Such activity would
result in all electromagnetic
radiation, of which light is
included, to experience
lengthening wavelengths.

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February 12, 2014

The next big shift

For a discovery almost a century
old, by no means has the
applications in research gone
stale. Modern efforts include:
Physics of high-redshift

galaxies
Survey cosmology
"Tired" light

Data is being collected and

analyzed to explore any
relationships that may exist
between low-redshift and highredshift and the intermediary
states between the extremes.
With an increasing presence of
observational facilities and
instrument precision, questions
about the evolution of galactic
structures and early star/galaxy
formation will continue to be of
interest to Physics.

Those familiar twinkles you see in the night sky, in varying hues
of blue, yellow, and red, go through quite a bit to eventually be
gazed upon. Thanks to the marvels of modern technology,
astronomers are able to detect slight variances in the recorded
wavelengths of distant, bright objects. These variances are
determined to be either "redshifted" or "blueshifted" according
to the direction an object is moving relative to Earth. Objects
moving toward us exhibit a slightly shorter wavelength, and
thereby a frequency closer to the blue end of the visible
spectrum, than objects moving away from us which tend toward
the red end.
What does this mean for Astronomy? The motion of distant
objects relative to Earth provide clues about the origins of the
Universe. The currently embraced theory is that the Universe is
expanding in all directions, evidenced by data collected by the
Hubble program.
Not all wavelength shifting is due to the Doppler eect. Other
sources include strong fields of gravity through which light
passes, and the physical stretching of spacetime described by the
famous theory of General Relativity. Each of those also provide
contextual clues, however the implications from those causes of
redshift are much more localized.

Where do they go !om here

Second-order Doppler shifting is an intriguing topic of study with
significant implications. This phenomena occurs when an emitter
is moving at right angles to the observer, thereby causing a
redshift not unlike the other methods. If discovered to be the
overwhelming majority cause of observable redshift, then the
ever-expanding galactic model would need to be re-worked into a
rotating one. Then it's back to the drawing board for Physics.

Tired light, the notion that

photons lose energy along the
journey from emitter to observer,
was an alternative theory
proposed to explain early
observations of redshift. Though
the Hubble redshift-distance
relationship is widely accepted,
speculative investigations
continue to be conducted.
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