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Prior to the launch and successful commencement of operations of the James Webb Space Telescope, I made three
Thunderbolts videos in which I discussed the Webb’s significance in the context of
Electric Universe cosmology issues. And I made several predictions of what the Webb Space Telescope would reveal.
This is the second episode to report on success in relation to those predictions
that emerged in the very first release of Webb imaging. Before proceeding with an
analysis of those images, I need to deal with a few matters to set the scene.
Redshift refers to an increase in the wavelength of light, measured as a shift
in the frequency of spectral emission - or absorption lines that are characteristic
of particular elements or chemical compounds, when compared to the
wavelengths emitted by those elements or compounds in the laboratory. In Standard Model astrophysics, the
redshift of a particular object can be a mix of three separate components. The first component is cosmological
redshift. That expression refers to an object's redshift that is due solely to the expansion of the universe, the
expansion of space-time itself. This results in a recessional velocity between galaxies that are at rest in
their local frame. The second component is redshift arising as a Doppler effect from the object's
motion in relation to other objects in their local frame. Such motion is referred to as proper motion or peculiar
motion. The third component is gravitational redshift which refers to an effect predicted by general
relativity, namely the lengthening of light waves traveling out of the gravitational field of a massive object.
The first two components give rise to a level of confusion for laypeople, precisely because the word ‘velocity’ is
used by astrophysicists and cosmologists in both contexts. The word ‘velocity’ is routinely used to
refer to the rate at which galaxies and other extragalactic objects are receding on account of the expansion of space,
rather than their proper motion. On the other hand, the word ‘velocity’ is also used to refer to proper motions
inferred from small differences in the redshifts of, for example, interacting galaxies; or galaxies within a galaxy
cluster; or differences measured within a galaxy or a cloud. And in the case of galactic
jets, much larger differences in redshift are correctly attributed to proper motion.
When an active galaxy with a particular redshift has bipolar jets, one jet will
have lower redshift, indicating that matter in the jet is traveling towards
us. The other jet will have a higher redshift, indicating matter in that jet is traveling away from us.
Nevertheless, in the Standard Model, the redshift of all galaxies and quasars
beyond our local universe, is almost entirely cosmological redshift, arising
from the expansion of the universe. It was Hubble's observation and the
spectral analysis by Milton Humason, that established the correlation between
luminosity and redshift. In every direction that Hubble observed,
decreasing luminosity correlated with increasing redshift. It was the interpretation of redshift as
a Doppler effect, arising from recessional velocity, which led to the
conclusion that the universe was expanding. Simple extrapolation backwards in time
drove Gamow and others, to conclude that the universe must have started with what
later came to be called the Big Bang. It is commonly said that Big Bang Theory
is based on three main categories of observational evidence, called the three pillars:
the expansion of the universe, proved by the Hubble redshift luminosity relationship; the cosmic microwave
background; and the abundances of the light elements. However, it is the first of these that is
the essential foundation of Big Bang cosmology. If the universe is not expanding, then
the whole basis for theorizing about the consequences of a Big Bang is removed.
Make no mistake, it is the expansion of the universe embodied in the Hubble law,
that is the essential foundation on which the whole of Big Bang cosmology is
erected. If the observed correlation between redshift and luminosity was not
due to a Doppler effect, but due to something else, as Hubble suspected and
as Halton Arp demonstrated, then that foundational axiom is destroyed and with
it, the vast edifice that is Big Bang cosmology collapses. Galaxies and quasars with significantly
different redshifts may appear close to one another on the plane of the sky.
However, in the Standard Model, this must be a chance alignment, because a
significant difference in redshift must mean that the objects are in different
parts of the universe such that any physical connection between them would be utterly impossible.
Similarly, in the Standard Model, viewed from Earth, it would be utterly
impossible for a high redshift object to be in the foreground of a low redshift object. This is a bit like the
proposition ‘all swans are white’. Just as finding a single black swan
would disprove that proposition, finding a single example where objects with
significantly different redshifts were physically connected, or where a high
redshift object was in front of an object with much lower redshift, would
destroy the essential foundation on which the whole superstructure of Big
Bang cosmology is erected. Of course that analogy is imperfect. In the case of quasars and high redshift
galaxies, the astrophysicists have never in fact seen any of these objects up close.
They do not know whether the redshift of these objects represent a distance arising from expanding space.
They have never demonstrated that any of those ‘swans’ are white. In my June 21st, 2021 Thunderbolts video,
I noted that quote, “Arp's research into high-redshift quasars shows they are
local.” Unquote. That is, quasars are not at the extreme distances indicated by the
Standard Model interpretation of their high redshift. I made the following prediction quote,
”So my first prediction is that the James Webb Telescope will support Halton Arp’s research
which shows plainly that high-redshift quasars are born in pairs and emitted in
oppositely directed jets along the spin axis of a low-redshift active galaxy.
They are not at the edge of the visible universe; they are in the neighborhood of their parent galaxy.
Therefore, they are not incredibly distant, bright and large. There is no
superluminal motion; they are nearby and youthfully faint.” Unquote. A final adjudication on that prediction
will require a substantial accumulation of Webb data. That will take years, and yet
Webb’s first science images provide a vindication of Arp's basic contention
that cosmological redshift is intrinsic, and not due to the expansion of the
universe, and its theory of quasar birth from active galactic nuclei. The first piece of evidence arises from
the Webb images of Stephan's Quintet, and a quasar appearing in the main field of
the galaxy. Quasars became central to Arp's research program. He gave an
account of the origins of that research program in a contribution to an edited volume “Against the Tide. A
Critical Review by Scientists of How Physics & Astronomy Get Done.” Quote: "Quasars were discovered in 1963 [by
radio astronomers] and [optical] astronomers rushed to observe them because they assume their high
redshifts meant they were at great distances and that the nature of the universe would thereby be revealed.
The Caltech radio astronomer who isolated the positions of the first quasars asked for telescope time to
observe their spectra and obtain their redshifts. He was told, only certain of the faculty could observe with the
200-inch telescope. Those select few went on to measure the spectra and reap the
headlines and the original discoverer left the field in disgust. As a Carnegie astronomer I was observing
on the telescope but the radio positions of the quasars were kept secret and so I
did the next best thing - photographing peculiar and disrupted galaxies to see
how they were formed and evolved. Ironically, in the end, they turned out to
be surrounded by quasars which were obviously not out at the edge of the universe.
That news was not welcomed by the observers who had inflated their reputations with discoveries of a new
quote ‘most luminous object in the universe’ every few weeks.” Unquote. It was ironic indeed because quasars took
center stage in the evidence of anomalous redshift assembled by Arp and others over the following decades.
This is a Hubble image of Stephan’s Quintet released in the year 2000. It's
a composite of three images obtained by Hubble's Wide Field Camera II. Two were in visible light and a third at
814 nanometers in the very near infrared. NGC 7319 is the Galaxy at the top of that image.
In the early 2000’s Arp was part of a team that identified an ultra-luminous
X-ray object as a high-redshift quasar, apparently in the foreground of NGC 7319.
That discovery was announced in a paper published in 2005 entitled, “The Discovery
of a High Redshift X-Ray Emitting QSO Very close to the Nucleus of NGC 7319.” It’s required reading for all
cosmologists while looking at the relevant images. This is a portion of the 2000 Hubble
image with processing to increase contrast and saturation which appears in that paper.
The Galaxy NGC 7319 has a redshift of Z=0.0225, whereas the quasar has a redshift of Z=0.2114,
numerically almost ten times greater. On the assumption of the Standard
Model's redshift - distance relationship, and using Ned Wright's calculator with
default values, NGC 7319's measured redshift of Z=0.0225, places it at a lookback time, or
distance of about 311 million light years when the light captured by Hubble was emitted.
On the other hand, the quasar has a measured redshift of Z=2.114, placing it at lookback time, or
distance, of about 10.58 billion light years when the light captured by Hubble
was emitted on the Standard Model. That is some 34 times farther away than NGC 7319.
Even on the Hubble image, it was obvious to Arp that the quasar was in the
foreground of NGC 7319, and therefore closer than NGC 7319. Look at the dark dust lane that passes
on a diagonal path that visually encloses a portion of the quasar. Not only did the quasar appear in the
foreground, as this image plainly shows, there is also a V-shaped jet extending
from the core of the galaxy to the quasar. The existence of that feature, previously
identified by mainstream astronomers, was confirmed in radio observations by Arp and his colleagues.
Arp writes, “This is the only system found so far in which there is the possibility
of demonstrating even more clearly that the QSO and Galaxy are interacting.”
It was striking evidence that the quasar had been ejected from the nucleus of NGC
7319. Arp's Standard Model critics insisted that the Quasar was at the
unimaginably enormous distance indicated by its redshift and therefore had to be
a background object, but so bright that it shines through the entire dust and
plasma of the disk of the galaxy. And as for the jet, well whatever. Subsequent to that paper in 2009, a
further Hubble image of Stephan’s quintet, obtained with Hubble's upgraded Wide
Field camera III, was released. Here is the indicated portion of that 2009 Hubble
image with the quasar marked by an arrow. That image did not change the arguments,
notwithstanding that it seemed even clearer that a dark dust lane passed
behind at least some portion of the field of the quasar. The dust lane has a
ragged edge - perhaps there was a deviation of the dust lane at precisely
the point where the quasar appears. As we shall shortly see, Webb images of
NGC 7319 within Stephan’s Quintet now put the issue beyond any reasonable argument.
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