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  4. Why doesn't a Light Beam go Skew?
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Why doesn't a Light Beam go Skew?

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Offline talanum1 (OP)

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Why doesn't a Light Beam go Skew?
« on: 16/04/2020 15:43:22 »
If space expands then it must distort in some direction, so why doesn't a light beam reflects this by going skew?
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Offline evan_au

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Re: Why doesn't a Light Beam go Skew?
« Reply #1 on: 16/04/2020 21:50:20 »
Quote
If space expands then it must distort in some direction,
On very large scales, space is expanding equally in every direction, so light is equally distorted in all directions.
This distortion is most visible in the red-shift of distant galaxies.

On smaller scales, space is distorted by the gravitational fields of galaxies and galaxy clusters (and the dark matter they host). This can result in more extreme distortions.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_lens
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Offline yor_on

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Re: Why doesn't a Light Beam go Skew?
« Reply #2 on: 17/04/2020 02:25:04 »
I think it's a good question. Doesn't matter for it if 'light' gets 'skewed' by 'growing' as in getting diffused by the universe accelerating expansion, or in some other manner distorted. But it also connects to what you expect from it. Is it waves or photons you think of? And then, does 'light' propagate or can there be another way to describe it, as with f.ex 'emanations in a field'. Astronomical light doesn't seem to be 'distorted' in any other way than the one where it is described in terms of waves getting red shifted due to the expansion. https://www.space.com/25732-redshift-blueshift.htm
=

Well, you have relative motion too but that one is rather similar to a expansion. Gravitational redshift is, to me, somewhat different from those two as it is a result of deceleration (redshifts) versus acceleration (blueshifts) in a gravitational well (as earth). It's a result of applying Einsteins equivalence principle on lights speed in a vacuum.
« Last Edit: 17/04/2020 02:55:36 by yor_on »
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