[Swordmaker]

The further away we look, the longer the wavelengths. What causes wavelengths to lengthen? The Doppler Effect, a known, proven and testable phenomenon.

Anything else and you might as well believe in Warp Drive.

The Doppler Shift may be observable fact, but when one observes a phenomenom that seems to be occuring at a certain distance that should have a specified Red Shift and DOES NOT, then one MUST start examining one's assumptions.

Several observations from the last few years are causing a serious re-thinking of the assumptions behind the velocity explanation for the so called Doppler Shift. The observation of objects that theory says only existed billions of years ago with red shift associated with much younger objects, the quantification of the red shift itself, the subject of this article, all force us to re-evaluate our assumptions.

Applying the Doppler Shift to astronomy involves the assumption that observed tonal changes (apparent wavelength) of sound from approaching and receeding sound sources is analogous to light from distant objects. Perhaps this is a falacious analogy.

The acceptance of the Doppler like velocity explanation for the observed red shift assumes that the conditions we experience in our local neighborhood are the same conditions elsewhere... which may be a very provincial view. For example, velocity is actually composed of TWO qualtities... distance and time. Perhaps it is TIME that is varying rather than distance! Our assumption that time proceeds at he same rate everywhere in the Universe is just that... an assumption. It may be that the farther away from any observational point, the passage of time is faster. We have no way of actually checking this assumption. An increase in the passage of time would distort both our measurement of velocity, distance, AND frequency.

[The Shootist]

None the less, the faster an object moves away, in relation to the observer, the more pronounced the shift to lower frequencies, this is observable with EM as well as sound. It is also true that, in every single case, the further a cosmological object is from the observer the higher its red-shift. This, regardless of such things as Inflation, or whether Einstein's Cosmological Constant is < 0, 0 or > 0.

There are also objects that appear to be moving closer to the Earth bound observer and, without exception, the frequency increases the faster the object appears to be moving.

Additionally, Stars appear to be Stars, wherever we look, near or FAR. That lends credence to the notion that C has remained constant, at least since the first star reached a mass sufficient to induce Hydrogen Fusion. Energy does equal mass times the speed of light squared, after all. Which is also proven and observable.

One gedanken suggests that if space-time itself were stretching, then perhaps, wave-lengths would lengthen with apparent distance, but the "speed" of light would remain unchanged.

Once again I harken back to Occam. No other explanation or theory is as elegant, or as simple, as the one currently in use.