
The Superlative Quasar (the red dot
near center). Credit: ESO/UKIDSS/SDSS
Billions of Suns, Billions of
years
Jul 13, 2011
If redshift (z) indicates
distance, then astronomers have
discovered the superlative
object: the most distant, the most
ancient, the most luminous, the most
massive.
Analysis of the object’s spectrum
shows that its lines have shifted
toward the red by over 700% (z=7.1).
The consensus opinion is that the
object—a quasar—is therefore almost
13 billion light-years away. Since
its light is presumed to have taken
nearly 13 billion years to reach us,
the quasar formed and became fully
operational less than 800 million
years after the widely publicized
secular Genesis Event that most
astronomers truly believe created
both the universe and the coordinate
system in which it is described.
To appear as bright as it does at
that distance, it must be giving off
about 60,000 billion times the
output of the Sun. To get that much
energy, 2 billion Suns must be
crammed into a mathematical point
called a black hole.
There can be no doubt that the
presumptions are absolutely true—if
you have no doubt about them. If you
are one of the handful of infidels
who still entertains doubts, if you
haven’t undergone the institutional
conditioning that reduces you to
acquiescence in such opinions, you
may find the beliefs
fatuous.
These Pictures of the Day for the
last seven years have reported the
considerable
evidence that contradicts
the initial claim that redshift
indicates distance.
If the quasar is not so far away,
it’s not so big and bright and old.
If redshift is
intrinsic and indicates
intrinsic age—age since the quasar
formed—the quasar could be close,
small, dim, and young. In this view,
quasars appear to have a peak
luminosity around z=1 and to be less
luminous with increasing redshift.
(See Quasars, Redshifts and
Controversies by Halton Arp, p.
67-70.) That would indicate that
this quasar is located within the
Local Group of galaxies and perhaps
is a recent ejection from the Milky
Way.
Mel Acheson
New
DVD
The Lightning-Scarred
Planet Mars
A video documentary that could
change everything you thought you
knew about ancient times and
symbols. In this second episode of
Symbols of an Alien Sky, David
Talbott takes the viewer on an
odyssey across the surface of Mars.
Exploring feature after feature of
the planet, he finds that only
electric arcs could produce the
observed patterns. The high
resolution images reveal massive
channels and gouges, great mounds,
and crater chains, none finding an
explanation in traditional geology,
but all matching the scars from
electric discharge experiments in
the laboratory. (Approximately 85
minutes)
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