Quote:
Originally Posted by Shark Bait
Thanks Steven,
Prompted by the Catalyst program and this discussion, I have my battered copy of Stephen Hawking's, A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME next to me. Time to read it from cover to cover....again.
Stu.
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Another issue that came out of the program was the reference to John Webb's work at the Uni of NSW on the spectrum of distant quasars.
According to Hubble's Law the cosmological redshifts for all objects is a function of the distance of the object from the observer.
The position of the spectral lines is also related to the fine structure constant "a" which is the strength of the electromagnetic force.
Using the Keck and VLT telescopes, Webb found the value of "a" was slightly larger for spectra taken by the VLT and slightly smaller for the Keck.
It seemed the Universe wasn't behaving isotropically as predicted by theory.
This was reported in the program. "a" is one of those finely tuned parameters.
What wasn't reported in the program is that mainstream science have basically thrown a bucket of cold water over the whole idea claiming the measurements reflect systematic errors at Keck and VLT.
Regards
Steven