Feature

New mechanism tor generating redshifts of spectral lines

Emil Wolf

According to current cosmological theories, the universe came into existence some 15 to 20 billion years ago. Since then, the large scale four-dimensional fabric of the world has continued to drag matter and radiation further and further apart. The available theories and observational evidence suggest that the recessional velocity of the visible and presumably also the invisible features increases linearly with the separation between the observer and the observed structures. This statement, known as Hubble's law, plays a central role in our current interpretation of the universe and in our understanding of its distant past. The observed red shift of the distant galaxies fits nicely with the picture of an expanding dynamical universe.

Publish Date: 01 December 1987