🚀 go-pugleaf

 baresson@cbnewsi.cb.att.com (pete.oram) writes:
 
po> 4. What other explanations are there for the redshift quantisation if it
po> doesn't just correspond to the velocity of the source?

  Tom Van Flandern replies: 

TVF> If redshifts are quantized for us and are caused by velocity alone, 
TVF> they cannot be quantized for most other observers.  
TVF> So either we are in a special place in the universe, 
TVF> or cosmological redshift is not due mainly to expansion velocity.  

  I just hate getting pulled into these cosmological discussions, but
I can't resist.  If it is true that galaxy redshifts are "quantized",
and I don't believe it yet, here's a simple explanation for the fact
that retains the "redshift due to velocity alone" idea:  galaxies 
occur in clumps, with gaps in between the clumps containing few galaxies.
If the clumps occur at regular intervals, then any observer, anywhere,
will see "quantized redshifts" due to the expansion of the universe.
N'est-ce pas?

  Now, before people jump on me, I admit that the redshift "quanta"
are so small (only 30-80 km/s) that this explanation seems extremely
unlikely - we DO see evidence for clusters of galaxies, and voids
between the clusters, but with velocities >= 1,000 km/s separating
the voids and clusters.  Therefore, Tifft's alleged quanta, if they
exist, must be due to something else.

  However, I couldn't resist pointing out a counter-example to Tom's
statement above :-)

  Speaking of astronomy, I read the article in today's (Friday's) NY Times
on a presentation of COBE results from the AAS meeting.  No one here at
Princeton could figure out what the article was saying.  It SEEMED to
say something like "COBE measurements of the microwave spectrum show 
a really, really good fit to a blackbody spectrum.  Therefore, nothing
exciting happened in the universe after the BB for at least one year."
Can someone at the AAS meeting make things more clear?

-- 
-----                                                    Michael Richmond
"This is the heart that broke my finger."    richmond@astro.princeton.edu