Astronomical Discussion
In 1998, Barry Setterfield wrote the following:
Notes on a Static Universe: Incredibly, an expanding universe does imply an expanding earth on most cosmological models that follow Einstein and or Friedmann. As space expands, so does everything in it. This is why, if the redshift signified cosmological expansion even the very atoms making up the matter in the universe would also have to expand. There would be no sign of this in rock crystal lattices etc since everything was expanding uniformly as was the space between them. This expansion occurred at the Creation of the Cosmos as the verses you listed have shown.
It is commonly thought that the progressive redshift of light from distant galaxies is evidence that this universal expansion is still continuing. However, W. Q. Sumner in Astrophysical Journal 429:491-498, 10 July 1994, pointed out a problem. The maths indeed show that atoms partake in such expansion, and so does the wavelength of light in transit through space. This "stretching" of the wavelengths of light in transit will cause it to become redder. It is commonly assumed that this is the origin of the redshift of light from distant galaxies. But the effect on the atoms changes the wavelength of emitted light in the opposite direction. The overall result of the two effects is that an expanding cosmos will have light that is blue-shifted, not red-shifted as we see at present. The interim conclusion is that the cosmos cannot be expanding at the moment (it may be contracting).
Furthermore, as Arizona astronomer William Tifft and others have shown, the redshift of light from distant galaxies is quantised, or goes in "jumps". Now it is uniformly agreed that any universal expansion or contraction does not go in "jumps" but is smooth. Therefore expansion or contraction of the cosmos is not responsible for the quantisation effect: it may come from light-emitting atoms. If this is so, cosmological expansion or contraction will smear-out any redshift quantisation effects, as the emitted wavelengths get progressively "stretched" or "shrunk" in transit. The final conclusion is that the quantised redshift implies that the present cosmos must be static after initial expansion. [Narliker and Arp proved that a static matter-filled cosmos is stable against collapse in Astrophysical Journal 405:51-56 (1993)].
Therefore, as the heavens were expanded out to their maximum size, so were the earth, and the planets, and the stars. I assume that this happened before the close of Day 4, but I am guessing here. Following this expansion event, the cosmos remained static. (Barry Setterfield, September 25, 1998)
In 2002, he authored the article "Is the Universe Static or Expanding", in which he presents further research on this subject.
Question: What about the new evidence that the rate of expansion of the universe is accelerating as reported in recent science articles?
Setterfield: The evidence that an accelerating expansion is occurring comes because distant objects are in fact further away than anticipated given a non-linear and steeply climbing red-shift/distance curve.
Originally, the redshift/distance relation was accepted as linear until objects were discovered with a redshift greater than 1. On the linear relation, this meant that the objects were receding with speeds greater than light, a no-no in relativity. So a relativistic correction was applied that makes the relationship start curving up steeply at great distances. This has the effect of making large redshift changes over short distances. Now it is found that these objects are indeed farther away than this curve predicts, so they have to drag in accelerating expansion to overcome the hassle.
The basic error is to accept the redshift as due to an expansion velocity. If the redshift is NOT a velocity of expansion, then these very distant objects are NOT travelling faster than light, so the relativistic correction is not needed. Given that point, it becomes apparent that if a linear redshift relation is maintained throughout the cosmos, then we get distances for these objects that do not need to be corrected. That is just what my current redshift paper does. (January 12, 1999)
Question: If light velocity has not always been a constant "c", why can it be mathematically shown to be constant even from distant star light? (ie. wavelength (m) x frequency (1/s)= 2.99792 x 108m/s) this equation is consistant even when the variables are changed! Light speed (velocity is constant)
Setterfield: It has been proved recently by aberration experiments that distant starlight from remote galaxies arrives at earth with the same velocity as light does from local sources. This occurs because the speed of light depends on the properties of the vacuum. If we assume that the vacuum is homogeneous and isotropic (that is has the same properties uniformly everywhere at any given instant), then light-speed will have the same value right throughout the vacuum at any given instant. The following proposition will also hold. If the properties of the vacuum are smoothly changing with time, then light speed will also smoothly change with time right throughout the cosmos.
On the basis of experimental evidence from the 1920's when light speed was measured as varying, this proposition maintains that the wavelengths of emitted light do not change in transit when light-speed varies, but the frequency (the number of wave-crests passing per second) will. The frequency of light in a changing c scenario is proportional to c itself. Imagine light of a given earth laboratory wavelength emitted from a distant galaxy where c was 10 times the value it has now. The wavelength would be unchanged, but the emitted frequency would be 10 times greater as the wave-crests are passing 10 times faster. As light slowed in transit, the frequency also slowed, until when it reaches earth at c now, the frequency would be the same as our laboratory standard as well as the wavelength. Trust that this reply answers your question. (June 15, 1999)
Question: Tell me, what are your views on what has been called "dark matter" in space? In your view, does that matter have enough mass to make the universe collapse? Perhaps more importantly, what is it exactly?
Setterfield: Thank you for your questions; let me see what I can do to answer them. Firstly about missing mass. There are two reasons why astronomers have felt that mass is "missing". The first is due to the apparent motion of galaxies in clusters. That motion in the outer reaches of the clusters appears to be far too high to allow the clusters to hold together gravitationally unless there is extra mass somewhere. However, that apparent motion is all measured by the redshift of light from those galaxies. Tifft's work with the quantised redshift indicates that redshift is NOT a measure of galaxy motion at all. In fact, motion washes out the quantisation. On that basis, the whole foundation on which the missing mass in galaxy clusters is built is faulty, as there is very little motion of galaxies in clusters at all. The second area where astronomers have felt that mass is "missing" is due to the behaviour of rotation rates of galaxies as you go out from their centres. The behaviour of the outer regions of galaxies is such that there must be more mass somewhere there to keep the galaxies from flying apart as their rotation rate is so high. It seems that there might indeed be a large envelope of matter in transparent gaseous form around galaxies that could account for this discrepancy. Alternatively, some astronomers are checking for Jupiter sized solid objecdts in the halo of our galaxy that could also overcome for the problem. A third possibility is that the Doppler equations on which everything is based may be faulty at large distances due to changes in light speed. I am looking into this.
Comment: I have no objection to the existence of either dark matter or dark energy, But I am skeptical that either has been "discovered."
Setterfield: The entire discussion about dark energy and dark matter is based, at least partly, on a mis-interpretation of the redshift of light from distant galaxies. But before I elaborate on that, let me first specifically address a recent article in Science (“Breakthrough of the Year: Illuminating the Dark Universe” Charles Seife, Science 302, 2038-2039, 2003) espousing the proof for dark energy. I find this amazing in view of the recent data that has come in from the European Space Agency's (ESA) X-ray satellite, the XMM-Newton. According to the ESA News Release for December 12, 2003 the data reveal "puzzling differences between today's clusters of galaxies and those present in the Universe around seven thousand million years ago." The news release says that these differences "can be interpreted to mean that 'dark energy' which most astronomers now believe dominates the universe simply does not exist". In fact, Alain Blanchard of the Astrophysical Observatory in the Pyrenees says the data show "There were fewer galaxy clusters in the past". He goes on to say that "To account for these results you have to have a lot of matter in the Universe and that leaves little room for dark energy."
In other words, we have one set of data which can be interpreted to mean that dark energy exists, while another set of data suggests that it does not exist. In the face of this anomaly, it may have been wiser for Science to have remained more circumspect about the matter. Unfortunately, the scientific majority choose to run with an interpretation they find satisfying, and tend to marginalize all contrary data. I wonder if the European data may not have been published by the time that Science went to print on the issue. Thus there may be some embarrassment by these later results, and they may be marginalized as a consequence.
The interpretation being placed on the WMAP observations of the microwave background is that it is the "echo" the Big Bang event, and all other data is interpreted on this basis. But Takaaki Musha from Japan pointed out in an article in Journal of Theoretics (3:3, June/July 2001) that the microwave background may well be the result of the Zero Point Energy allowing the formation of virtual tachyons in the same way that it allows the formation of all other kinds of virtual particles. Musha demonstrated that all the characteristics of the microwave background can be reproduced by this approach. In that case, the usual interpretation of the WMAP data is in error and the conclusions drawn from it should be discarded and a different set of conclusions deduced.
However, the whole dark matter/dark energy discussion points to the fact that anomalies exist which current theory did not anticipate. Let me put both of these problems in context. Dark matter became a necessity because groups of galaxies seemed to have individuals within the group which appeared to be moving so fast that they should have escaped long ago if the cosmos was 14 billion years old. If the cosmos was NOT 14 billion years old but, say, only 1 million or 10,000 years old, the problem disappears. However, another pertinent answer also has been elaborated by Tifft and Arp and some other astronomers, but the establishment does not like the consequences and tends to ignore them as a result. The answer readily emerges when it is realized that the rate of movement of the galaxies within a cluster is measured by their redshift. The implicit assumption is that the redshift is a measure of galaxy motion. Tifft and Arp pointed out that the quantized redshift meant that the redshift was not intrinsically a measure of motion all but had another origin. They pointed out that, in the centre of the Virgo cluster of galaxies, where motion would be expected to be greatest under gravity, the ACTUAL motion of the galaxies smeared out the quantization. If actual motion does this, then the quantized redshift exhibited by all the other galaxies further out means that there is very little actual motion of those galaxies at all. This lack of motion destroys the whole basis of the missing matter argument and the necessity for dark matter then disappears. The whole missing matter or dark matter problem only arises because it is in essence a mis-interpretation of what the redshift is all about.
In a similar fashion, the whole dark energy (or necessity for the cosmological constant) is also a redshift problem. It arises because there is a breakdown in the redshift/distance relationship at high redshifts. That formula is based on the redshift being due to the galaxies racing away from us with high velocities. Distant supernovae found up to 1999 proved to be even more distant than the redshift/distance formula indicated. This could only be accounted for on the prevailing paradigm if the controversial cosmological constant (dark energy) were included in the equations to speed up the expansion of the universe with time. The fact that these galaxies were further away than expected was taken as proof that the cosmological constant (dark energy) was acting. Then in October this year, Adam Riess announced that there were 10 even more distant supernovae whose distance was CLOSER than the redshift relation predicted. With a deft twist, this was taken as further proof for the existence of dark energy. The reasoning went that up to a redshift of about 1.5 the universal expansion was slowing under gravity. Then at that point, the dark energy repulsion became greater than the force of gravity, and the expansion rate progressively speeded up.
What in fact we are looking at is again the mis-interpretation of the redshift. Both dark matter and dark energy hinge on the redshift being due to cosmological expansion. If it has another interpretation, and my latest paper being submitted today [late December, 2003] shows it does, then the deviation of distant objects from the standard redshift/distance formula is explicable, and the necessity for dark matter also disappears. Furthermore, the form of the actual equation rests entirely on the origin of the Zero Point Energy. The currently accepted formula can be reproduced exactly as one possibility of several. But the deviation from that formula shown by the observational evidence is entirely explicable without the need for dark energy or dark matter or any other exotic mechanism.
I trust that this gives you a feel for the situation.
Question: I have been reading that the popular opinion is that there are black holes at the center of most galaxies, including ours. What is your thought on exactly what these incredibly massive things are. And, where DOES light go when it gets trapped?
If matter cannot be created or destroyed, simply changed, what happens to light in a black hole? Any radiation, for that matter.
Setterfield: You ask where the radiation etc disappears to when it gets trapped inside a black hole. The quick answer is that it becomes absorbed into the fabric of space, as that fabric is made up of incredibly tiny Planck particle pairs that are effectively the same density as the black holes. The trapped radiation cannot travel across distances shorter than those between the Planck particles, and so gets absorbed into the vacuum. This brings us to your question of what a black hole really is. It essence, it is a region of space that has the same density as the Planck particle pairs that make up the fabric of space. It seems that these centres of galaxies may have formed as an agglomeration of Planck particle pairs at the inception of the universe and acted as the nucleus around which matter collected to form galaxies.
Question: Looked over your papers, enjoyed every bit of it and how it ties everything together theoretically and observationally. How do Pulsars and Quasars apply to changing speed of light? Could they offer some way to compare current speed vs speed in the past? Maybe even compare orbital time in past to current atomic clocks?
Setterfield: Astronomically, many of the important distant Quasars turn out to be the superluminous, hyper-active centres of galaxies associated with a supermassive black hole. There is a mathematical relationship between the size of the black hole powering the quasar and the size of the nucleus of any given galaxy. As a result of this relationship, there is a debate going on as to whether the quasar/black hole came first and the galaxy formed around it, or vice versa. Currently, I tend to favour the first option. Nevertheless, which ever option is adopted, the main effect of dropping values of c on quasars is that as c decays, the diameter of the black hole powering the quasar will progressively increase. This will allow progressive engulfment of material from the region surrounding the black hole and so should feed their axial jets of ejected matter. This is the key prediction from the cDK model on that matter.
As far as pulsars are concerned, there recently has been some doubt cast on the accepted model for the cause of the phenomenon that we are observing. Until a short time ago, it was thought that the age of a pulsar could be established from the rotation period of the object that was thought to give rise to the precisely timed signal. However, recent work on two fronts has thrown into confusion both the model for the age of the pulsar based on its rotation period, and also actual cause of the signal, and hence what it is that is rotating. Until these issues can be settled, it is difficult to make accurate predictions from the cDK model.
Setterfield: As far as pulsars are concerned within 1000 parsecs of the earth, there should only be very, very minimal effects due to a changing c. In fact, at that distance, the change in c would be so small as to not even give rise to any redshift effects at all. The first redshift effect comes at the first quantum jump which occurs beyond the Magellanic Clouds. This shows that the rate at which c is climbing across our galaxy is very, very small. Consequently, any effect with pulsars within our galaxy is going to be negligible.
Recently the reason for the spindown rate in pulsars has been seriously questioned, and new models for pulsar behaviour will have to be examined. See, for example, New Scientist 28 April, 2001, page 28. Until a viable model of pulsar behaviour and the cause of the pulsars themselves has been finalised, it is difficult to make any predictions about how the speed of light is going to affect them.
Question: How do pulsars and quasars tie in with the speed of light research?
Setterfield: Astronomically, many of the important distant Quasars turn out to be the superluminous, hyper-active centres of galaxies associated with a supermassive black hole. There is a mathematical relationship between the size of the black hole powering the quasar and the size of the nucleus of any given galaxy. As a result of this relationship, there is a debate going on as to whether the quasar/black hole came first and the galaxy formed around it, or vice versa. Currently, I tend to favour the first option. Nevertheless, whichever option is adopted, the main effect of dropping values of c on quasars is that as c slows, the diameter of the black hole powering the quasar will progressively increase. This will allow progressive engulfment of material from the region surrounding the black hole and so should feed their axial jets of ejected matter. This is the key prediction from my variable speed of light model on that matter.
As far as pulsars are concerned, there recently has been some doubt cast on the accepted model for the cause of the phenomenon that we are observing. Until a short time ago, it was thought that the age of a pulsar could be established from the rotation period of the object that was thought to give rise to the precisely timed signal. However, recent work on two fronts has thrown into confusion both the model for the age of the pulsar based on its rotation period, and also actual cause of the signal, and hence what it is that is rotating. Until these issues can be settled, it is difficult to make accurate predictions.
Question: I've been asked why distant pulsars don't show a change in their rotation rate if the speed of light is slowing. Do you have an explanation? If you have any information on whether their observed rate of change should change with a slowing of c I would appreciate it.
Setterfield: Thanks for your question about pulsars. There are several aspects to this. First of all, pulsars are not all that distant, the furthest that we can detect are in small satellite galaxies of our own Milky Way system. Second, because the curve of lightspeed is very flat at those distances compared with the very steep climb closer to the origin, the change in lightspeed is small. This means that any pulsar slowdown rate originating with the changing speed of light is also small. The third point is that the mechanism that produces the pulses is in dispute as some theories link the pulses with magnetic effects separate from the star itself, so that the spin rate of the host star may not be involved. Until this mechanism is finally determined, the final word about the pulses and the effects of lightspeed cannot be given. If you have Cepheid variables in mind, a different situation exists. The pulsation, that gives the characteristic curve of light intensity variation, is produced by the behaviour of a thin segment near the star's surface layer. The behaviour of this segment of the star's outer layers is directly linked with the speed of light. This means that any slow-down effect of light in transit will already have been counteracted by a change in the pulsation rate of this layer at the time of emission. The final result will be that any given Cepheid variable will appear to have a constant period for the light intensity curve, no matter where it is in space and no matter how long we observe it.
4/5/03 addition
Comment: Dr. Tom Bridgman website shows in calculus the metric for canceling out the red-shift. Even more important is the metric he shows for kinematic argument using pulsar periods out to a distance of 1,000 parsecs from earth. According to Tom, you have very observable effects in pulsar periods using c-decay that is way off so c-decay is not taking place within 1,000 parsecs of the earth
Setterfield: Yes. As far as pulsars are concerned within 1000 parsecs of the earth, there should only be very, very minimal effects due to a changing c. In fact, at that distance, the change in c would be so small as to not even give rise to any redshift effects at all. The first redshift effect comes at the first quantum jump which occurs beyond the Magellanic Clouds. This shows that the rate at which c is climbing across our galaxy is very, very small. Consequently, any effect with pulsars within our galaxy is going to be negligible.
Recently the reason for the spindown rate in pulsars has been seriously questioned, and new models for pulsar behaviour will have to be examined. See, for example, New Scientist 28 April, 2001, page 28. There are other references which I do not have on hand at the moment, but which document other problems as well. Until a viable model of pulsar behaviour and the cause of the pulsars themselves has been finalised, it is difficult to make any predictions about how the speed of light is going to affect them.
I am curious about the metric that Bridgman is using, because I show the change in wavelength over the wavelength (which is the definition of the redshift) is, in fact, occurring.
Response: Dr. William T. (Tom) Bridgman is using kinematics and a calculus formula to shoot down your c-decay metric. He even uses your predicted c-decay curve based upon the past 300 years or so of measurments for c and incorporates this into the pulsar changes that he claims should be observed. if correct then c-decay did not take place within past 300 years or even out to distances of 1 kiloparsec
Setterfield: The curve that Tom is using for pulsar analysis is outdated and no longer applicable to the situation as it dates from the 1987 paper. The recent work undergoing review indicates a very different curve which includes a slight oscillation. This oscillation means that there is very little variability in light speed out to the limits of our galaxy. Thus, even if the rest of his math were correct, and the behaviour of pulsars were known accurately, Tom's conclusions are not valid. I suggest that he some of the more recent material before attempting fireworks.
Response: If c-decay has predictable and observable side effects like pulsar timing changes, changes in eclipses of Jupiter's and Saturn's moons, and also changes in stellar occultations in the ecliptic, these should be rigourously tested to see if they support or deny c-decay. At the moment Tom's metric denies c-decay as published based upon the 1987 c-decay curve
Setterfield: I have examined pulsar timing changes in detail and responded some years ago to that so-called "problem". Any observed changes are well within the limits predicted by this variable light-speed (Vc) model just introduced. One hostile website used the pulsar argument for a while until I pointed out their conceptual error to a friend and then it was deleted and has not appeared again since. I suspect that Tom is making the same error.
The changes in the eclipse times of Jupiter's and Saturn's moons have in fact been used as basic data in the theory. Stellar occultations along the ecliptic have also been used as data based on the work of Tom van Flandern who studied the interval 1955-1981. He then came to the conclusion: "the number of atomic seconds in a dynamical interval is becoming fewer. Presumably, if the result has any generality to it, this means that atomic phenomena are slowing down with respect to dynamical phenomena..." In this case the eclipse times and the occultations were used to build the original model and as such are not in conflict with it.
Setterfield: In Physical Review Letters published on 27 August 2001 there appeared a report from a group of scientists in the USA, UK and Australia, led by Dr. John K. Webb of the University of New South Wales, Australia. That report indicated the fine-structure constant, a, may have changed over the lifetime of the universe. The Press came up with stories that the speed of light might be changing as a consequence. However, the change that has been measured is only one part in 100,000 over a distance of 12 billion light-years. This means that the differences from the expected measurements are very subtle. Furthermore, the complicated analysis needed to disentangle the effect from the data left some, like Dr. John Bahcall from the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., expressing doubts as to the validity of the claim. This is further amplified because all the measurements and analyses have been done at only one observatory, and may therefore be the result equipment aberration. Other observatories will be involved in the near future, according to current plans. This may clarify that aspect of the situation.
The suggested change in the speed of light in the Press articles was mentioned because light-speed, c, is one of the components making up the fine-structure constant. In fact K. W. Ford, (Classical and Modern Physics, Vol. 3, p.1152, Wiley 1974), among others gives the precise formulation as a = e2/(2ehc) where e is the electronic charge, e is the electric permittivity of the vacuum, and h is Planck’s constant. In this quantity a, the behaviour of the individual terms is important. For that reason it is necessary to make sure that the e term is specifically included instead of merely implied as some formulations do. Indeed, I did not specifically include it in the 1987 Report as it played no part in the discussion at that point. To illustrate the necessity of considering the behaviour of individual terms, the value of light-speed, c, has been measured as decreasing since the 17th or 18th century. Furthermore, while c was measured as declining during the 20th century, Planck’s constant, h, was measured as increasing. However, deep space measurements of the quantity hc revealed this to be invariant over astronomical time. The data obtained from these determinations can be found tabulated in the 1987 Report The Atomic Constants, Light, and Time by T. Norman and B. Setterfield. Since c has been measured as declining, h has been measured as increasing, and hc shown to be invariant, the logical conclusion from this observational evidence is that h must vary precisely as 1/c at all times. If there is any change in a, this observational evidence indicates it can only originate in the ratio e2/e. This quantity is discussed in detail in the paper Atomic Quantum States, Light, and the Redshift.
Question: Here's a link to a new result about the variable speed of light. They find no effect, to a more stringent level than Murphy & Webb.
http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0311280
Setterfield: In answer to the question, the quantity being measured here is the fine structure constant, alpha. This is made up of 4 other atomic quantities in two groups of two each. The first is the product of Planck's constant, h, and the speed of light, c. Since the beginning of this work in the 1980's it has been demonstrated that the product hc is an absolute constant. That is to say it is invariant with all changes in the properties of the vacuum. Thus, if h goes up, c goes down in inverse proportion. Therefore, the fine structure constant, alpha, cannot register any changes in c or h individually, and, as we have just pointed out, the product hc is also invariant.
As a consequence, any changes in alpha must come from the other ratio involved, namely the square of the electronic charge, e, divided by the permittivity of free space. Our work has shown that this ratio is constant in free space. However, in a gravitational field this ratio may vary in such a way that alpha increases very slightly. If there are any genuine changes in alpha, this is the source of the change. The errors in measurement in the article that raised the query cover the predicted range of the variation on our approach. The details of what we predict and a further discussion on this matter are found in our article in the Journal of Theoretics entitled "General Relativity and the Zero Point Energy" which can be found here;
http://www.journaloftheoretics.com/Links/Papers/BS-GR.pdf
Comment: By the way, there's a pretty easy way to demonstrate that the speed of light has been constant for about 160,000 years using Supernova 1987A.
Setterfield: It has been stated on a number of occasions that Supernova 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) has effectively demonstrated that the speed of light, c, is a constant. There are two phenomena associated with SN1987A that lead some to this erroneous conclusion. The first of these features was the exponential decay in the relevant part of the light-intensity curve. This gave sufficient evidence that it was powered by the release of energy from the radioactive decay of cobalt 56 whose half-life is well-known. The second feature was the enlarging rings of light from the explosion that illuminated the sheets of gas and dust some distance from the supernova. We know the approximate distance to the LMC (about 165,000 to 170,000 light years), and we know the angular distance of the ring from the supernova. It is a simple calculation to find how far the gas and dust sheets are from the supernova.
Consequently, we can calculate how long it should take light to get from the supernova to the sheets, and how long the peak intensity should take to pass.
The problem with the radioactive decay rate is that this would have been faster if the speed of light was higher. This would lead to a shorter half-life than the light-intensity curve revealed. For example, if c were 10 times its current value (c now), the half-life would be only 1/10th of what it is today, so the light-intensity curve should decay in 1/10th of the time it takes today. In a similar fashion, it might be expected that if c was 10c now at the supernova, the light should have illuminated the sheets and formed the rings in only 1/10th of the time at today's speed. Unfortunately, or so it seems, both the light intensity curve and the timing of the appearance of the rings (and their disappearance) are in accord with a value for c equal to c now. Therefore it is assumed that this is the proof needed that c has not changed since light was emitted from the LMC, some 170,000 light years away.
However, there is one factor that negates this conclusion for both these features of SN1987A. Let us accept, for the sake of illustration, that c WAS equal to 10c now at the LMC at the time of the explosion. Furthermore, according to the c decay (cDK) hypothesis, light-speed is the same at any instant right throughout the cosmos due to the properties of the physical vacuum. Therefore, light will always arrive at earth with the current value of c now. This means that in transit, light from the supernova has been slowing down. By the time it reaches the earth, it is only travelling at 1/10th of its speed at emission by SN1987A. As a consequence the rate at which we are receiving information from that light beam is now 1/10th of the rate at which it was emitted. In other words we are seeing this entire event in slow-motion. The light-intensity curve may have indeed decayed 10 times faster, and the light may indeed have reached the sheets 10 times sooner than expected on constant c. Our dilemma is that we cannot prove it for sure because of the slow-motion effect. At the same time this cannot be used to disprove the cDK hypothesis. As a consequence other physical evidence is needed to resolve the dilemma. This is done in Atomic Quantum States, Light and the Redshift where it is shown that the redshift of light from distant galaxies gives a value for c at the moment of emission.
By way of clarification, at NO time have I ever claimed the apparent superluminal expansion of quasar jets verify higher values of c in the past. The slow-motion effect discussed earlier rules that out absolutely. The standard solution to that problem is accepted here. The accepted distance of the sheets of matter from the supernova is also not in question. That is fixed by angular measurement. What IS affected by the slow motion effect is the apparent time it took for light to get to those sheets from the supernova, and the rate at which the light-rings on those sheets grew.
Additional Note: In order to clarify some confusion on the SN1987A issue and light-speed, let me give another illustration that does not depend on the geometry of triangles etc. Remember, distances do not change with changing light-speed. Even though it is customary to give distances in light-years (LY), that distance is fixed even if light-speed is changing.
To start, we note that it has been established that the distance from SN1987A to the sheet of material that reflected the peak intensity of the light burst from the SN, is 2 LY, a fixed distance. Imagine that this distance is subdivided into 24 equal light-months (LM). Again the LM is a fixed distance. Imagine further that as the peak of the light burst from the SN moved out towards the sheet of material, it emitted a pulse in the direction of the earth every time it passed a LM subdivision. After 24 LM subdivisions the peak burst reached the sheet.
Let us assume that there is no substantive change in light-speed from the time of the light-burst until the sheet becomes illuminated. Let us further assume for the sake of illustration, that the value of light-speed at the time of the outburst was 10c now. This means that the light-burst traversed the DISTANCE of 24 LM or 2 LY in a TIME of just 2.4 months. It further means that as the travelling light-burst emitted a pulse at each 1 LM subdivision, the series of pulses were emitted 1/10th month apart IN TIME.
However, as this series of pulses travelled to earth, the speed of light slowed down to its present value. It means that the information contained in those pulses now passes our earth-bound observers at a rate that is 10 times slower than the original event. Accordingly, the pulses arrive at earth spaced one month apart in time. Observers on earth assume that c is constant since the pulses were emitted at a DISTANCE of 1 LM apart and the pulses are spaced one month apart in TIME.
The conclusion is that this slow-motion effect makes it impossible to find the value of c at the moment of emission by this sort of process. By a similar line of reasoning, superluminal jets from quasars can be shown to pose just as much of a problem on the variable c model as on conventional theory. The standard explanation therefore is accepted here.
Question: I've been following the dialog regarding the issue of the value of c at the location of supernova 1987A. I'm curious, how does one account for the constant gamma ray energies from known transitions (i.e. the same as in the earth's frame) and the neutrino fluxes (with the right kind of neutrinos at the expected energy) if c is significantly larger? Wasn't one of the first signals of this event a neutrino burst?
For example, if positron annihilation gammas were observed in the event and the value of the speed of light at 1987A was 10c, wouldn't you expect a hundredfold increase in the gamma energy from .511MeV to 51.1MeV?
Setterfield: Thanks for the question, its an old one. You have assumed in your question that other atomic constants have in fact remained constant as c has dropped with time. This is not the case. In our 1987 Report, Trevor Norman and I pointed out that a significant number of other atomic constants have been measured as changing lock-step with c during the 20th century. This change is in such a way that energy is conserved during the cDK process. All told, our Report lists 475 measurements of 11 other atomic quantities by 25 methods in dynamical time.
This has the consequence that in the standard equation [E = mc2] the energy E from any reaction is unchanged (within a quantum interval - which is the case in the example under discussion here). This happens because the measured values of the rest-mass, m, of atomic particles reveal that they are proportional to 1/(c2). The reason why this is so, is fully explored in Atomic Quantum States, Light and the Redshift. Therefore in reactions from known transitions, such as occurred in SN1987A with the emission of gamma rays and neutrinos, the emission energy will be unchanged for a given reaction. I trust this reply is adequate. (1/21/99)
Comments: [from a Professor of Astronomy] The Decreasing Speed of Light Model (DSLM) has to not only to take into account photons, i.e., radiation, but they have to deal with matter also. It was the neutrinos, now believed to have mass, that first gave us the signal that Super Novae 1987a. The Star had collapsed and crushed protons and electrons into neutrons at a distance of 170,000 or so Light Years. The folks that espouse the Mature Creation Model (MCM) have to have the history of the explosion be "written into" the radiation and now the matter stream that came to us form the direction of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Of course, in the MCM, this never really "happened". It just appears that it happened. To the DSLM people, the neutrinos would give them an increasing rest mass (or rest energy if you like) as we go back into history. (Of course this effects all matter. If we believe in the conservation of energy, where has all this energy gone?) The Neutrinos would have been decreasing in rest mass as they traveled through space. Thus they would be radiating. Since Neutrinos permeate the universe in fantastic numbers, this radiation should be detectable. But, what we wold detect would be a continuum of frequencies, not a single temperatured, 3 degree, cosmic background radiation. If the speed of light enabled light waves to travel 10 billion light years in a day or so, this means light would be traveling 100,000 times faster. The rest mass would be 10 billion times larger! How do they deal with this? One other problem is that the radiation carries momentum varying with the speed of light.
Setterfield: It really does appear as if the Professor has not done his homework properly on the cDK (or DSLM) issue that he discussed in relation to Super Nova 1987 A. He pointed out that neutrinos gave the first signal that the star was exploding, and that neutrinos are now known to have mass. He then goes on to state (incorrectly) that neutrinos would have an increasing rest mass (or rest energy) as we go BACK into history. He then asks "if we believe in the conservation of energy, where has all this energy gone?" He concluded that this energy must have been radiated away and so should be detectable. Incredibly, the Professor has got the whole thing round the wrong way. If he had read our 1987 Report, he would have realised that the observational data forced us to conclude that with cDK there is also conservation of energy. As the speed of light DECREASES with time, the rest mass will INCREASE with time. This can be seen from the Einstein relation [E = mc2]. For Energy E to remain constant, the rest mass m will INCREASE with time in proportion to [1/ (c2)] as c is dropping. This INCREASE in rest-mass with time has been experimentally supported by the data as listed in Table 14 of our 1987 Report. There is thus no surplus energy to radiate away at all, contrary to the Professor's suggestion, and the rest-mass problem that he poses will also disappear.
In a similar way, light photons would not radiate energy in transit as their speed drops. According to experimental evidence from the early 20th century when c was measured as varying, it was shown that wavelengths, [w], of light in transit are unaffected by changes in c. Now the speed of light is given by [c = fw] where [f] is light frequency. It is thus apparent that as [c] drops, so does the frequency [f], as [w] is unchanged. The energy of a light photon is then given by [E = hf] where [h] is Planck's constant. Experimental evidence listed in Tables 15A and 15B in the 1987 Report as well as the theoretical development shows that [h] is proportional to [1/c] so that [hc] is an absolute constant. This latter is supported by evidence from light from distant galaxies. As a result, since [h] is proportional to [1/c] and [f] is proportional to [c], then [E = hf] must be a constant for photons in transit. Thus there is no extra radiation to be emitted by photons in transit as light-speed slows down, contrary to the Professor's suggestion, as there is no extra energy for the photon to get rid of.
I hope that this clarifies the matter. I do suggest that the 1987 Report be looked at in order to see what physical quantities were changing, and in what way, so that any misunderstanding of the real situation as given by observational evidence can be avoided. Note that there are several sections that have been updated in the new Redshift Paper and have accordingly been omitted in order to avoid confusion. Thank you for your time and interest. (May 13, 1999)
Question: What about SN1997ff?
Setterfield: There has been much interest generated in the press lately over the analysis by Dr. Adam G. Riess and Dr. Peter E. Nugent of the decay curve of the distant supernova designated as SN 1997ff. In fact, over the past few years, a total of four supernovae have led to the current state of excitement. The reason for the surge of interest is the distances that these supernovae are found to be when compared with their redshift, z. According to the majority of astronomical opinion, the relationship between an object's distance and its redshift should be a smooth function. Thus, given a redshift value, the distance of an object can be reasonably estimated.
One way to check this is to measure the apparent brightness of an object whose intrinsic luminosity is known. Then, since brightness falls off by the inverse square of the distance, the actual distance can be determined. For very distant objects something of exceptional brightness is needed. There are such objects that can be used as 'standard candles', namely supernovae of Type Ia. They have a distinctive decay curve for their luminosity after the supernova explosion, which allows them to be distinguished from other supernovae.
In this way, the following four supernovae have been examined as a result of photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. SN 1997ff at z = 1.7; SN 1997fg at z = 0.95; SN 1998ef at z = 1.2; and SN 1999fv also at z = 1.2. The higher the redshift z, the more distant the object should be. Two years ago, the supernovae at z = 0.95 and z = 1.2 attracted attention because they were FAINTER and hence further away than expected. This led to two main competing theories among cosmologists. First, that the faintness was due to dust, or second, that the faintness was due to Einstein’s cosmological constant – a kind of negative gravity expanding the universe progressively faster than if the expansion was due solely to the Big Bang.
The cosmological constant has been invoked sporadically since the time of Einstein as the answer to a number of problems. It is sometimes called the "false vacuum energy." However, in stating this, it should be pointed out, as Haisch and others have done, that the cosmological constant has nothing to do with the zero-point energy. This cosmological constant, lambda, is frequently used in various models of the Big Bang, to describe its earliest moments. It has been a mathematical device used by some cosmologists to inflate the universe dramatically, and then have lambda drop to zero. It now appears that it would be helpful if lambda maintained its prominence in the history of the cosmos to solve more problems. Whether it is the real answer is another matter. Nevertheless, it is a useful term to include in some cosmological equations to avoid embarrassment.
At this point, the saga takes another turn. Recent work reveals that the object SN1997ff, the most distant of the four, turns out to be BRIGHTER than expected for its redshift value. This event has elicited the following comments from Adrian Cho in New Scientist for 7 April, 2001, page 6 in an article entitled "What's the big rush?"
Two years ago, two teams of astronomers reported that distant stellar explosions known as type Ia supernovae, which always have the same brightness, appeared about 25 per cent dimmer from Earth than expected from their red shifts. That implied that the expansion of the Universe has accelerated. This is because the supernovae were further away than they ought to have been if the Universe had been expanding at a steady rate for the billions of years since the stars exploded. But some researchers have argued that other phenomena might dim distant supernovae. Intergalactic dust might soak up their light, or type Ia supernovae from billions of years ago might not conform to the same standard brightness they do today.
"This week's supernova finding seems to have dealt a severe blow to these [alternative] arguments [and supports] an accelerating Universe. The new supernova's red shift implies it is 11 billion light years away, but it is roughly twice as bright as it should be. Hence it must be significantly closer than it would be had the Universe expanded steadily. Neither dust nor changes in supernova brightness can easily explain the brightness of the explosion.
"Dark energy [the action of the cosmological constant, which acts in reverse to gravity] can, however. When the Universe was only a few billion years old, galaxies were closer together and the pull of their gravity was strong enough to overcome the push of dark energy and slow the expansion. A supernova that exploded during this period would thus be closer than its red shift suggests. Only after the galaxies grew farther apart did dark energy take over and make the Universe expand faster. So astronomers should see acceleration change to deceleration as they look farther back in time. ‘This transition from accelerating to decelerating is really the smoking gun for some sort of dark energy,’ Riess says.
Well, that is one option now that dust has been eliminated as a suspect. However, the answer could also lie in a different direction to that suggested above as there is another option well supported by other observational evidence. For the last two decades, astronomer William Tifft of Arizona has pointed out repeatedly that the redshift is not a smooth function at all but is, in fact, going in "jumps", or is quantised. In other words, it proceeds in a steps and stairs fashion. Tifft's analyses were disputed, so in 1992 Guthrie and Napier did a study to disprove the matter. They ended up agreeing with Tifft. The results of that study were themselves disputed, so Guthrie and Napier conducted an exhaustive analysis on a whole new batch of objects. Again, the conclusions confirmed Tifft's contention. The quantisations of the redshift that were noted in these studies were on a relatively small scale, but analysis revealed a basic quantisation that was at the root of the effect, of which the others were simply higher multiples. However, this was sufficient to indicate that the redshift was probably not a smooth function at all. If these results were accepted, then the whole interpretation of the redshift, namely that it represented the expansion of the cosmos by a Doppler effect on light waves, was called into question. This becomes apparent since there was no good reason why that expansion should go in a series of jumps, anymore than cars on a highway should travel only in multiples of, say, 5 kilometres per hour.
However, a periodicity on a much larger scale has also been noted for very distant objects. In 1990, Burbidge and Hewitt reviewed the observational history of these preferred redshifts. Objects were clumping together in preferred redshifts across the whole sky. These redshifts were listed as z = 0.061, 0.30, 0.60, 0.96, 1.41, 1.96, 2.63 and 3.45 [G. Burbidge and A. Hewitt, Astrophysical Journal, vol. 359 (1990), L33]. In 1992, Duari et al. examined 2164 objects with redshifts ranging out to z = 4.43 in a statistical analysis [Astrophysical Journal, vol. 384 (1992), 35], and confirmed these redshift peaks listed by Burbidge and Hewitt. This sequence has also been described accurately by the Karlsson formula. Thus two phenomena must be dealt with, both the quantisation effect itself and the much larger periodicities which mean objects are further away than their redshifts would indicate. Apparent clustering of galaxies is due to this large-scale periodicity.
A straightforward interpretation of both the quantisation and periodicity is that the redshift itself is going in a predictable series of steps and stairs on both a small as well as a very large scale. This is giving rise to the apparent clumping of objects at preferred redshifts. The reason is that on the flat portions of the steps and stairs pattern, the redshift remains essentially constant over a large distance, so many objects appear to be at the same redshift. By contrast, on the rapidly rising part of the pattern, the redshift changes dramatically over a short distance, and so relatively few objects will be at any given redshift in that portion of the pattern.
These considerations are important in the current context. As noted above by Reiss, the objects at z = 0.95 and z = 1.2 are systematically faint for their assumed redshift distance. By contrast, the object at z = 1.7 is unusually bright for its assumed redshift distance. Notice that the object at z = 0.95 is at the middle of the flat part of the step according to the redshift analyses, while z = 1.2 is right at the back of the step, just before the steep climb. Consequently for their redshift value, they will be further away in distance than expected, and will therefore appear fainter. By contrast, the object at z = 1.7 is on the steeply rising part of the pattern. Because the redshift is changing rapidly over a very short distance astronomically speaking, the object will be assumed to be further away than it actually is and will thus appear to be brighter than expected.
When interpreted this way, these recent results support the existence of the redshift periodicities noted by Burbidge and Hewitt, statistically confirmed by Duari et al., and described by the Karlsson formula. In so doing, they also imply that redshift behaviour is not a smooth function, but rather goes in a steps and stairs pattern. If this is accepted, it means that the redshift is not a measure of universal expansion, but must have some other interpretation.
The research that has been conducted on the changing speed of light over the last 10 years has been able to replicate both the basic quantisation picked up by Tifft, and the large-scale periodicities that are in evidence here. On this research, the redshift and light-speed are related effects that mutually derive from changing vacuum conditions. The evidence suggests that the vacuum zero-point energy (ZPE) is increasing as a result of initial expansion of the cosmos. It has been shown by Puthoff [Physical Review D 35:10 (1987), 3266] that the ZPE is maintaining all atomic structures throughout the universe. Therefore, as the ZPE increases, the energy available to maintain atomic orbits increases. Once a quantum threshold has been reached, every atom in the cosmos will assume a higher energy state for a given orbit and so the light emitted from those atoms will be bluer than those in the past. Therefore as we look back to distant galaxies, the light emitted from them will appear redder in quantised steps. At the same time, since the speed of light is dependent upon vacuum conditions, it can be shown that a smoothly increasing ZPE will result in a smoothly decreasing light-speed. Although the changing ZPE can be shown to be the result of the initial expansion of the cosmos, the fact that the quantised effects are not "smeared out" also indicate that the cosmos is now essentially static, just as Narliker and Arp have demonstrated [Astrophysical Journal vol. 405 (1993), 51]. In view of the dilemma that confronts astronomers with these supernovae, this observational alternative may be worth serious examination.
Comment: One of the basic principles of quantum mechanics is that light does in fact exist in discrete packets of energy. The very word "quantum" is a reference to this, the whole area of physics dealing with photons is named after it.
Using the analogy given by Setterfield of cars moving along a road: The doppler effect measured from the cars as they go by gives a continuous kind of change. But, if sound existed in quanta the way that light does, then you would be measuring the doppler effect as changing in the discrete units that the redshift is measured as changing in.
Setterfield: If a redshift is due to motion, it is not quantized; it is a smooth smearing depending on the velocity. There is not a quantized effect. We see this smooth smearing in velocities of stars, rotation of stars, and the movement of stars within galaxies. What happens is that the wavelength of the photon is stretched or contracted due to the velocity at the time of emission. Therefore the fact that the photon originates as a discrete packet of energy is irrelevent. The point that needs to be made is that in distant galaxies, photons of light have been emitted with a range of wavelengths. All these wavelengths are simultaneously shifted in jumps by the same fraction, and it is these jumps which Tifft has noted, and which are not indicative of a Doppler shift. So some other effect is at work. (November 16, 1999)
Comment: If lightspeed was much faster in the past, but has decayed substantially since then, then astronomers would observe "slow motion" effects, the effect being stronger the more distant the light source from earth. However, such "slow motion" effects are simply not observed.
Setterfield: Since many atomic processes are faster proportional to c, but the slow motion effect at the point of reception is also operating, the combined overall result is that everything seems to proceed at the same unchanged pace.
For example, Supernova 1987A involves the radioactive decay of Cobalt 56. Since this is an atomic process, this was decaying much faster when the speed of light was higher. However, this is exactly offset by the slow motion effect when that signal comes to earth. As a consequence, the decay of Cobalt 56 in Supernova 1987A seems to have the same half-life then as it has now. Therefore no astronomical evidence for a slow motion effect in atomic processes would be expected.
Question: What is your view regarding the Big Bang?
Setterfield: When George Gamow (1949) proposed a beginning to the expansion which was the accepted explanation for the redshift, Hoyle derisively called it the "Big Bang." Nothing exploded or banged in Gamow's idea, though; there was simply a hot, dense beginning from which everything expanded. Hoyle put up a different model in which matter was continuously being originated.
The major objection to Gamow's "Big Bang" was that it was too close to the biblical model of creation! In fact, even up to 1985 the Cambridge Atlas of Astronomy (pp 381,384) referred to the "Big Bang" as the 'theory of sudden creation.' On 10th August, 1989, Dr. John Maddocks, editor of Nature, declared the Big Bang philosophically unacceptable in an article entitled “Down with the Big Bang” (Nature, vol. 340, p. 425)
So what is the difference between the BB and the biblical model? Essentially naturalism. The Bible says God did it and secular science says it somehow just happened. However the Bible does say, twelve times, that God stretched the heavens. So that expansion is definitely in the Bible.
In the meantime, the steady state theory was effectively disproved by quasars being discovered in the mid '60's.
It is interesting that Gamow's two young colleagues, Ralph Alpher and Robert Herman, predicted in a 1948 letter to Nature that the CBR temperature should found to be about 5 deg K. [ Nature, 162, 774.] They predicted 10-15 degrees K. The background radiation was found, but at a much lower temperature.
The glitch for the BB right now in terms of a continuously expanding universe is the presence of the quantized redshift. On May 5th and 7th of this year, two abstracts in astrophysics were published.* In the second one, Morley Bell writes: "Evidence was presented recently suggesting that [galaxy] clusters studied by the Hubble Key Project may contain quantized intrinsic redshift components that are related to those reported by Tifft. Here we report the results of a similar analysis using 55 spiral ... and 36 Type Ia supernovae galaxies. We find that even when many more objects are included in the sample there is still clear evidence that the same quantized intrinsic redshifts are present..."
This is indication that the redshift might not be a Doppler effect. Back in 1929, Hubble himself had some doubts about connecting the two. The redshift number is obtained by comparing the light received with the standard laboratory measurements for whatever element is being seen. So this is simply a difference between two measurements and there is no intrinsic connection between the redshift measurement and velocity. In fact it has been noted that at the center of the Virgo cluster the high velocity of the galaxies wipes out the quantization of the redshift.
Interestingly, when the Bible speaks of God stretching the heavens, eleven of the twelve times the verb translated "stretched" is in the past completed tense.
There is another possible cause for the quantized redshift, which is explored in Atomic Quantum States, Light and the Redshift. Essentially, it has to do with the increasing zero point energy, as measured by Planck's constant. The statistics regarding that are in his earlier major paper, here.
As far as the cosmic background radiation is concerned, the first point to note is that its temperature is much lower than that initially suggested by Gamow. This leaves some room for doubt as to whether or not this is the effect he was predicting. It is possible that even in the creation scenario, with rapid expansion from an initial super-dense state, that this effect would still be seen. However, there is another explanation which has surfaced in the last year or so. It has to do with the zero point energy. In the same way that the ZPE allows for the manifestation of virtual particle pairs, such electron/positron pairs, it is also reasonable to propose that the ZPE would allow the formation of virtual tachyon pairs. Calculation has shown that the energy density of the radiation from these tachyon pairs has the same profile as that of the cosmic microwave background. So that is another point to consider.
As far as the abundance of elements is concerned, there are several anomalies existing with current BB theory. Gamow originally proposed the building up of all elements in his BB scenario. However a blockage was found in that process which was difficult to overcome. As a result, Hoyle, Burbidge, and Fowler examined the possibility of elements being built up within stars, which later exploded and spread them out among the intergalactic clouds. This proposal is now generally accepted. However, it leads to a number of problems, such as the anomalous abundance of iron in the regions around quasars. There are other problems, such as anomalous groups of stars near the center of our galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy which have high metal abundances. Because of the current approach using the production of these elements in the first generation of stars, this process obviously takes time. As a consequence, these anomalous stars can only be accounted for by collisions or cannibalization of smaller star systems by larger galaxies. There is another possible answer, however, which creationists need to consider. It has been shown that in a scenario with small black holes, such as Planck particles, the addition of a proton to the system or to a system with a negatively-charged black hole, the build-up of elements becomes possible. The blockage that element formation in stars was designed to overcome is eliminated, because neutrons can also be involved, as can alpha particles. As a consequence, is it possible to build up other elements than hydrogen and helium in the early phases of the universe. This may happen in local concentrations where negative black holes formed by the agglomeration of Planck Particles exist. Stars that form in those areas would then have apparently anomalous metal abundances. Importantly, in this scenario, if Population II stars were formed on Day 1 of Creation Week, as suggested by Job 38, and Population I stars were formed half-way through day 4, as listed in Genesis 1:14, we have a good reason why the Population I stars contain more metals than the Population II stars, as this process from the agglomeration of black holes would have had time to act.
Regarding distance and age of galaxies: There is no argument that distance indicates age. This should be stated first. It was this very fact that the further out we looked, the more different the universe appeared, that caused the downfall of the Steady State model. Specifically, it was the discovery of quasars that produced this result. Importantly, quasars become brighter and more numerous the further out we look. At a redshift of around 1.7, their numbers and luminosity appear to plateau. Closer in from 1.7, their numbers and intensity decline. Furthermore, a redshift of 1.7 is also an important marker for the formation of stars. We notice starburst galaxies of increasing activity as we go back to a redshift of 1.7. At that point, star formation activity appears to reach a maximum where young, hot blue stars of Population I are being formed (therefore emitting higher amounts of UV radiation). At a redshift of 1.7, the redshift/distance relationship also undergoes a major change. The curve steepens up considerably as we go back from that point. This has caused current BB thinking to introduce some extra terms into their equations which would indicate that the rate of expansion of the cosmos has speeded up as we come forward in time from that point. On the lightspeed scenario, a redshift of 1.7 effectively marks the close of Creation Week, and so all of these above effects would be expected to taper off after that time.
* Astrophysics, abstract astro-ph/0305060
and Astrophysics, abstract astro-ph/0305112
Question: I have become aware of your work through Chuck Missler. I've read most of your articles in the web site. Very interesting and provocative. I like how your theories are consistent with science and the Bible.
In the Earth History article, you mention several catastrophes caused primarily by radioactive heating, etc. but mention that comets, etc. could also have impacted the Earth, Mars, etc. Do you have any thoughts on theories about Mars and/or Venus orbits being different in the past and that past orbit patterns might have caused near passbys, and thus, you might have crustal tides. Chuck alludes to this being a possibility and I have run across some internet sites that talk about this as well.
Setterfield: The idea of the changes in orbits initially came from the work done by Velikovsky. While his data collection is remarkable, I disagree with his conclusions. For example, he talks about planet Venus in a wandering orbit, causing some catastrophes here on earth. One of the problems with this, as with all similar proposals, is that the planet Venus lies in the plane of the ecliptic -- the same as all other planets except Pluto -- while comets and similar wandering bodies move above and below the plane of the ecliptic. Furthermore, as the orbit of a wandering Venus eventually stabilized around the sun, it would still be highly elliptical. By contrast, the orbit of Venus is the most nearly circular of all the planetary orbits. Consequently, it is the least likely to have been a wanderer in the past.
A similar statement may be made about Mars, although its orbit is somewhat more elliptical than the Earth's, but not nearly as elliptical as Pluto's.
Question: In the current issue of SCIENCE (vol 301 29 August 2003 pages 116 and 117), they say, "--space and time aren't smooth at the smallest scale, but fuzzy and foamimg. Now that tantalizing prospect has vanished in a puff of gamms rays." I don't understand, from their observations, how they can conclude the above.
How does the changing speed of light over time impinge upon the results discussed in this article? If you can find the time I would greatly appreciate your expert opinion of this article.Setterfield: As far as the article and your question is concerned, the point that is being made is that if space is ‘fuzzy’ and foam-like at the smallest dimensions, this is going to interfere in some ways with the images that we are receiving from very distant galaxies and quasars. In other words, these images should get progressively more fuzzy themselves. The initial experiments to prove this turned out to disprove the proposition, and thereby have thrown one section of science into some confusion. On this basis, the conclusions of the article are, in fact, correct.
The changing speed of light over time is not affected by this. One reason for this is that I do not necessarily consider space to be ‘fuzzy’ or foam-like. In an earlier presentation of this work, I made use of Planck Particle Pairs in a way which may have implied agreement with this idea of fuzziness. However, a re-examination of the basis on which this was used has revealed that the presence of Planck Particle Pairs early in the history of the cosmos does not necessarily imply that they are connected with or form the fuzziness other astronomers and cosmologists have been referring to. In fact, over time, the number of Planck Particle Pairs would have dramatically reduced. As these positive and negative pairs have recombined, they have sent out pulses of radiation, which is what the Zero Point Energy is. Thus, because the Planck Particle Pairs are decreasing, the ZPE is building up as a direct result. As the ZPE builds up, the speed of light drops.
Question: I have not seen a satisfactory accounting (from creationist sources) for the heavy cratering in the solar system, either during the six days, or after. Even distributed over the pre-flood years, the massive bombardment would destroy as much as the flood itself.
Setterfield: You state that you have not seen a satisfactory accounting for the heavy cratering in the early solar system from creationist sources. Some of this is addressed in my article, A Brief Stellar History, in part II. http://www.setterfield.org/stellarhist.html#parttwo
Question: I just came across an article stating proof of dark matter has been found, and was wondering if you've had time to look into it. This, if true, would seem to be a direct contradiction to variable light speed theory. If you have any information about this you could pass on to me, I would greatly appreciate it.
Setterfield: Thank you for sending this request. I have needed a spark to get me going to respond to this. As it turns out, there is a very good response printed in New Scientist, 9th Sept. 2006, p. 12. The article is entitled "Dark Matter 'Proof' Called into Doubt."
I know not everyone has access to this article, but I do agree with what it says and will try to summarize it for you here.
Here is the opening, which may help:
"When Douglas Clowe of the University of Arizona in Tucson announced on 21 August that his team has 'direct proof of dark matter's existence,' it seemed that the issue had been settled. Now proponents of the so-called modified theories of gravity, who explain the motion of stars and galaxies without resorting to dark matter, have hit back and are suggesting that Clowe's team has jumped the gun.
"'One should not draw premature conclusions about the existence of dark matter without a careful analysis of alternative gravity theories,' writes John Moffatt, of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, who has pioneered an alternative theory of gravity known as MOG (www.arxiv.org/astro-ph/0608675 )...Moffatt claims that his MOG theory can explain the Bullet Cluster without an ounce of dark matter."
The article also mentions a number of other theories of gravity that achieve the same result. In essence, my theory (the ZPE theory) also does this. This is part of a paper which we are seeking to have published currently. If we are unsuccessful in getting this paper published, we will put it here on the web. Basically, gravity is caused by the ZPE acting on charged point-particles that give off a secondary radiation that is attractive. This has been shown by Haisch, Rueda, and Putoff to actually be the source of gravity. As I have a look at the equations that I am dealing with in this context, it turns out that there is an additional term which overcomes all of the problems of galaxy rotation and gravitational lensing. This is a direct result of ZPE theory.
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