Redshift is a term for the doppler effect on electromagnetic radiation, similar to the change in pitch of a train whistle as it speeds away from the station. For visible light, when objects are speeding away, the light waves stretch towards the red end of the spectrum, hence the term Redshift. For objects getting closer to the observer the light waves are compressed towards the blue end of the spectrum so that’s called blueshift. In space, it’s believed that redshift can be used to measure distance as well as speed. According to theory, celestial bodies with higher redshifts are farther away, and some objects indicate that the universe is “inflating” or expanding. The rate of universal inflation is thought to be increasing over time as well, based on analyzing the electromagnetic spectrum of distant galaxies and quasars. However, during the past decade, a search for the effects of time dilation on distant quasars with high redshift has been conducted by astronomer Mike Hawkins of the Royal Observatory Edinburgh. The results seem to challenge the long held assumptions of big bang and inflation theories. To Hawkins surprise, no evidence for time dilation was found.
“To my amazement, the [light signatures] were exactly the same,” he says. “There was no time dilation in the more distant objects.”
High redshift quasars are supposed to blink at a slower rate than their closer low redshift counterparts. Observations prove otherwise. Is redshift data being interpreted properly?
There are some astronomers who would not be surprised. They say that the redshift data is best explained by processes other than big bang expansion. They may be right because many high redshift objects (allegedly more distant) have been observed interacting with low redshift objects (allegedly closer), of which Arp 87 is a magnificent example.
Interacting galaxies Arp87. Image credit: Hubble Heritage Project
