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New Theories / The Gravitational Distortion of Space
« on: 18/03/2016 22:37:41 »
The Gravitational Distortion of Space
Vincent P. Vogel
Friday, March 18, 2016
We have all seen computer graphics showing gravity as a three-dimensional grid with a star and a planet deforming the grid. This is a nice visualization of gravity, but let’s consider the real-universe implications. It means that in certain regions - according to Einstein’s theories - space itself is distorted, being compressed or expanded due to the effects of gravity.
So when we look at a distant object possessing a strong gravitational field, space away from the object is expanded while space near and within the object is compressed. The spatial expansion around an object would cause a red-shift of the light coming from the object as it travels through the expanded space between us and the object.
For singular extended objects such as the sun, planets, and moons, the stretching and compression of space mostly cancel each other out so that the object appears about the same size and shape it would otherwise appear if space were not distorted.
But for distributed objects like galaxies, there may often be a noticeable distortion where the stretched outskirts of a galaxy appear larger than the compressed interior. We may need to adjust our photos of galaxies to visualize their correct proportions! This distortion would probably be even more pronounced for larger galaxies.
Our human bodies along with everything around us is compressed since we live in the earth’s gravitational field. Of course this is difficult to measure since any normal measuring device is also affected by the same spatial distortion.
I have been pondering these thoughts recently and then I read Joe Brown’s recent topic “Dark Energy - is it a farce?” which I really appreciated.
So I ask the forum, is there any viability of these theories and has anyone seen any examples...any photographic evidence showing the gravitational distortion of space?
Vincent P. Vogel
Friday, March 18, 2016
We have all seen computer graphics showing gravity as a three-dimensional grid with a star and a planet deforming the grid. This is a nice visualization of gravity, but let’s consider the real-universe implications. It means that in certain regions - according to Einstein’s theories - space itself is distorted, being compressed or expanded due to the effects of gravity.
So when we look at a distant object possessing a strong gravitational field, space away from the object is expanded while space near and within the object is compressed. The spatial expansion around an object would cause a red-shift of the light coming from the object as it travels through the expanded space between us and the object.
For singular extended objects such as the sun, planets, and moons, the stretching and compression of space mostly cancel each other out so that the object appears about the same size and shape it would otherwise appear if space were not distorted.
But for distributed objects like galaxies, there may often be a noticeable distortion where the stretched outskirts of a galaxy appear larger than the compressed interior. We may need to adjust our photos of galaxies to visualize their correct proportions! This distortion would probably be even more pronounced for larger galaxies.
Our human bodies along with everything around us is compressed since we live in the earth’s gravitational field. Of course this is difficult to measure since any normal measuring device is also affected by the same spatial distortion.
I have been pondering these thoughts recently and then I read Joe Brown’s recent topic “Dark Energy - is it a farce?” which I really appreciated.
So I ask the forum, is there any viability of these theories and has anyone seen any examples...any photographic evidence showing the gravitational distortion of space?