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No. 84: Nov-Dec 1992

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QUASAR REDSHIFT CLUSTERS AND (EVEN WORSE) MULTIPLE REDSHIFTS

At the XIIIth Krakow Summer School of Cosmology, September 7-12, 1992, many of the world's top cosmologists experienced the disorientation that accompanies both earthquakes and shifting paradigms. Two of many cosmoseisms felt during the meeting in Poland are recorded below:

"Halton Arp, Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics, spoke about his "Variable Mass" cosmology. He pointed out the need for cosmologies to explain why quasar redshifts cluster near 0.3, 0.6..., with the grouping just below z = 1.2 dominating all others; and why certain classes of stars have significant excess redshifts. He also pointed out the inconsistency that local galaxy groups seem to have velocity dispersions of less than 100 km/s, while distant groups seem to have members with dispersions up to 1000 km/s.

"Jack Sulentic spoke about multiple redshifts seen in some quasars and AGNs. Line profiles come in all types; symmetric, double-peaked, and asymmetric. Relative shifts are both toward the red and the blue. Arguments against an accretion disk/black-hole model were reviewed. Apparently a non-Doppler redshift-blueshift mechanism is needed. For example, one broad line (in 1404 + 28) shifts back and forth by 1000 km/s relative to another narrow H-line, with an average offset of 2000 km/s. These shifts correlate perfectly with intensity."

Less technically speaking, the longheld belief that redshifts are solely due to the Doppler effect is receding along with the expanding universe!

(Van Flandern, T.; "Recent Meeting: XIIIth Krakow Summer School of Cosmology," Meta Research Bulletin, 1:25, September 15, 1992.)

From Science Frontiers #84, NOV-DEC 1992. � 1992-2000 William R. Corliss