For very far objects (beyond about 1 billion light-years) none of the above methods work. Scientists must move from direct observation to using observations in conjunction with a theory. The theory used to determine these very great distances in the universe is based on the discovery by Edwin Hubble that the universe is expanding.
In 1929, Edwin Hubble announced that almost all galaxies appeared to be moving away from us. In fact, he found that the universe was expanding - with all of the galaxies moving away from each other. This phenomenon was observed as a redshift of a galaxy's spectrum. This redshift appeared to be larger for faint, presumably further, galaxies. Hence, the farther a galaxy, the faster it is receding from Earth. You can see this trend in Hubble's data shown in the images above. The velocity of a galaxy could be expressed mathematically as
Red Shifting Stars
If the object is travelling towards us, the wavelength is shifted towards the blue end of the spectrum, if the object is travelling away from us, the wavelength is shifted towards the red end. In cosmological redshift, the wavelength at which the radiation is originally emitted is lengthened as it travels through (expanding) space. Zipper's is located in Elkridge, MD in the business park at the junction of MD100 and US1, just south of Baltimore. 6655-A Amberton Drive Elkridge, MD 21075. Born for war, Steppenwolf has lived for millennia. Despite being a rage-fueled conqueror of worlds, Steppenwolf desires to be free from servitude to his master. Living through countless ages, combined with multiple traumatic events has cracked his psyche. He's exhausted, shifting towards the red, but her mirage drives him forward.
where v is the galaxy's radial outward velocity, d is the galaxy's distance from Earth, and H is the constant of proportionality called the Hubble constant.
Red Shift Definition
The exact value of the Hubble constant is still somewhat uncertain, but is generally believed to be around 65 kilometers per second for every megaparsec in distance. (A megaparsec is given by 1 Mpc = 3 x 106 light-years). This means that a galaxy 1 megaparsec away will be moving away from us at a speed of 65 km/sec, while another galaxy 100 megaparsecs away will be receding at 100 times this speed. So essentially, the Hubble constant reflects the rate at which the universe is expanding.
So to determine an object's distance, we only need to know its velocity. Velocity is measurable thanks to the Doppler shift. By taking the spectrum of a distant object, such as a galaxy, astronomers can see a shift in the lines of its spectrum and from this shift determine its velocity. Putting this velocity into the Hubble equation, they determine the distance. Note that this method of determining distances is based on observation (the shift in the spectrum) and on a theory (Hubble's Law). If the theory is not correct, the distances determined in this way are all nonsense. Most astronomers believe that Hubble's Law does, however, hold true for a large range of distances in the universe.
It should be noted that, on very large scales, Einstein's theory predicts departures from a strictly linear Hubble law. The amount of departure, and the type, depends on the value of the total mass of the universe. In this way a plot of recession velocity (or redshift) vs. distance, which is a straight line at small distances, can tell us about the total amount of matter in the universe and may provide crucial information about the mysterious dark matter.
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The light from distant stars and more distant galaxies is not featureless, but has distinct spectral features characteristic of the atoms in the gases around the stars. When these spectra are examined, they are found to be shifted toward the red end of the spectrum. This shift is apparently a Doppler shift and indicates that essentially all of the galaxies are moving away from us. Using the results from the nearer ones, it becomes evident that the more distant galaxies are moving away from us faster. This is the kind of result one would expect for an expanding universe. The red line of the spectrum below is the transition from n=3 to n=2 of hydrogen and is famous as the H-alpha line seen throughout all the universe.
| The building up of methods for measuring distance to stars and galaxies led Hubble to the fact that the red shift (recession speed) is proportional to distance. If this proportionality (called Hubble's Law) holds true, it can be used as a distance measuring tool itself. The measured red shifts are usually stated in terms of a z parameter. The largest measured z values are associated with the quasars. |