Sunday, October 23, 2016

Redshift, Dark Energy, and the Quickening Hurtling-outward of It All

Redshift is the displacement of spectral lines toward longer wavelengths (the red end of the spectrum) in radiation from distant galaxies and celestial objects. Somehow, measuring redshift, we've come to believe that not only is the matter in the universe hurtling out from the center, it's hurtling faster and faster. Some say that the cause of the increasing acceleration of matter from the center outward is to do with dark energy, which is distributed throughout space. I'm not trying to put up a front. I don't understand what redshift is or how we measure it or how those measurements lead us to these theories, and I sure don't know what dark energy might be. Perhaps I just like articulating science-y stuff once in a while. But it's interesting that science is kind of the new religion. We have to make a leap of faith, because we're sure not doing the experiments ourselves, nor could we even read and comprehend the research papers which the research generates, probably. We have our high priests to take care of all that. The new clergyman: the scientific shaman. What am I on about? Oh, I dunno. It's just a haiku, right? Or have I now made it into a haibun?

 way down the long wave 
spectral lines all out of whack
 Big Bang speeding up




3 comments:

  1. er, or not... http://www.sciencealert.com/no-the-universe-is-not-expanding-at-an-accelerated-rate-say-physicists

    ReplyDelete
  2. Quite something to think about, isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Haibun..haiku.. and much to contemplate I say. Interesting write.

    ReplyDelete