- #1
SuperM4ssive
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As you might have guessed from my subtle hint, I've been pondering the nature of dark energy and its involvement in the expanding universe and I tripped over a stupidly simple alternative idea that pretty much changes much of what I understand about cosmology since the times of Albert Einstein. But first, I need more info.
I'm no scientist (altho I like calling myself one in conversation), I have no degrees, don't know all (well, ANY) of the math involved in cosmological calculations, the majority of what I know and understand come from TV documentaries and factional books by guys like Michio Kaku (he's my hero, totally). So here's what I think I know.
We agree that the universe is expanding, not only because it's still a reasonably logical conclusion from the big bang, but because of a little phenomenon called the Doppler shift. Light emitted by something moving towards you shifts slightly to the blue, light from something moving away from you shifts to red, due to the funny habit that light has of always moving at exactly the same speed, no matter how fast or in which direction the light emitter is moving, and thus stretching or compacting space itself to accommodate this absolute constant, which in turn causes an increase or decrease in wavelength.
So when smart people with big telescopes look at the galaxies, they see that not only do galaxies that are farther away suffer a stronger red shift (indicating that they are moving faster than close-by galaxies), but over time they actually shift even further to the red (indicating that the rate of expansion increases exponentially in relation to the distance). In short, things that are far away are moving faster than things that are close, and the farther they move, the faster they move away from us.
Am I correct in these understandings thus far? If not, please enlighten the I? :)
I'm no scientist (altho I like calling myself one in conversation), I have no degrees, don't know all (well, ANY) of the math involved in cosmological calculations, the majority of what I know and understand come from TV documentaries and factional books by guys like Michio Kaku (he's my hero, totally). So here's what I think I know.
We agree that the universe is expanding, not only because it's still a reasonably logical conclusion from the big bang, but because of a little phenomenon called the Doppler shift. Light emitted by something moving towards you shifts slightly to the blue, light from something moving away from you shifts to red, due to the funny habit that light has of always moving at exactly the same speed, no matter how fast or in which direction the light emitter is moving, and thus stretching or compacting space itself to accommodate this absolute constant, which in turn causes an increase or decrease in wavelength.
So when smart people with big telescopes look at the galaxies, they see that not only do galaxies that are farther away suffer a stronger red shift (indicating that they are moving faster than close-by galaxies), but over time they actually shift even further to the red (indicating that the rate of expansion increases exponentially in relation to the distance). In short, things that are far away are moving faster than things that are close, and the farther they move, the faster they move away from us.
Am I correct in these understandings thus far? If not, please enlighten the I? :)
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