Edwin Hubble and his assistant Milton Humason, using stars called Cepheid variables as a measuring yardstick, confirmed the relation between redshift and distance.
Based on Wirtz's and Hubble's observations, in 1927, Lemaitre put forward his hypothesis of an expanding universe in which he concluded that the universe as a whole must be expanding, driving the galaxies apart. In 1931, Lemaitre released his theory of the "primeval atom". However, by the end of the 1930's this concept fell into disfavour along with the Big Bang Theory.
In 1946, George Gamow put forward a second version of the Big Bang. As proof of this hypothesis, he cited the abundance of elements which he assumed could not have been produced by any process continuing in the present-day universe. He envisioned the universe would begin much like an A-Bomb, as a hot neutron gas; as the neutrons bombarded one another, they would fuse forming light elements, then increasingly heavier ones. Gamow was able to show that heavy elements would be produced in amounts close to those actually observed. Gamow claimed that stars were not hot enough to produce the elements heavier than helium and, therefore, these elements had to had been created in the more intense heat of the Big Bang.
However, in April of 1946, British astronomer, Sir Fred Hoyle, put forward an alternative hypothesis involving stars that have exhausted their hydrogen fuel. Hoyle was able to show that the various stages that a star goes through would produce the heavier elements in roughly the observed proportions. If the Big Bang had occurred, the two processes together would have produced more heavy elements than is actually observed. This created a major problem for the Big Bang adherents.By 1948, Hoyle along with Thomas Gold and H.Bondi had formulated their Steady State Theory. For the next decade, the Big Bang Theory and the Steady State Theory both had their proponents. After years of work, in 1957, Margaret and Gregory Burbridge, William Fowler and Hoyle published a detailed theory showing how stellar systems would produce all known elements in proportions very close to those observed to exist. This new theory was rapidly accepted as substantially correct. Although this theory was able to show how the heavier elements were created, it failed to account for the abundance of helium and certain light elements such as deuterium, lithium, beryllium and boron which are burned in the stars. Hoyle's theory was that hydrogen atoms were forming spontaneously in space, but he could not explain the formation of the other light elements.
At this point in time, both leading hypothesis were in trouble with neither side having an advantage.
In an effort to save the Big Bang Theory, Gamow, calculated the temperature
of the radiation coming from the Big Bang would appear today to be 20o
K. P.J.E.Peebles also calculated the temperature of the radiation and
concluded it would be 30o K. When the Bell Laboratories discovered
the microwave background radiation which they found had a temperature of
3.5o K, it was hailed as proof of the Big Bang Theory. The fact that
the amount of energy in a radiation field is proportional to its temperature to
the fourth power meant that the observed radiation had several thousand times
less energy than either Gamow or Peebles had predicted. This problem and other
difficulties with the Big Bang Theory were ignored and because Hoyle could not
explain the abundance of the light elements, the Big Bang Theory became the
dominate theory by default.
As will be shown ,The Steady State Galaxy
Theory overcomes the problem Hoyle had with his steady state theory while at the
same time does not have the problems which the Big Bang Theory has.
The purpose of this Web Page is to show that the Steady State Galaxy Theory can provide an alternative to the Big Bang Theory in explaining the universe around us. It covers the operation of Galaxies and shows that they recycle both Matter and Energy and are able to carry on indefinitely. It also explains the Shape of Galaxies, Red Shift, Microwave Background Radiation, Entropy, the Hydrogen-Helium Ratio and the abundance of other light elements.
If the reader takes an open-minded approach and looks at all aspects of the material presented here before reaching any conclusions, it will, at least, provide them with some food for thought.
Thus, the galaxies form huge recycling systems which will carry on indefinitely.
1.Hydrogen, helium and other light elements are ejected from the Neutroid.
The Concept of the Steady State Galaxy as put forth above can account for the shape of all galaxies we see in the universe. As explained above, the spiral is the basic shape of galaxies. The exact shape will be determined by the size of the neutroid, the tilt of its magnetic axis with respect to its axis of rotation and its rate of rotation .
Our Milky-Way is typical of large mature galaxies in which it takes many billions of years for the magnetic poles to make one revolution. As well, the hydrogen ejected at the magnetic poles has sufficient velocity to reach a distance of 100,000 light-years from the Neutroid and it takes it tens of billions of years to reach that distance. If the rate of rotation of the magnetic poles of the Neutroid were much greater in relation to the velocity of the hydrogen jets, the spiral arms would overlap and become nondistinct thus forming an ELIPICAL Galaxy. If the magnetic axis were slightly less than 90 degrees with respect to the axis of rotation, a thicker galaxy would result.
BAR Galaxies are small galaxies in which the hydrogen fueling the Stars is all consumed before the Stars can escape the magnetic field of the Neutroid's magnetic poles.
Many galaxies such as M104(NGC4594) exhibit a very prominent dust lane about their edge. This is a feature that is difficult to explain using presently accepted theories but is to be expected in some types of galaxies under the steady state galaxy theory.
The Big Bang Theory was originally proposed in order to explain the 'RED Shift' of light received by us from distant galaxies. Light received from distant stars can be broken down and analyzed as to its spectral content. It has been found that stars of a similar size and age produce identical spectral patterns which are related to their atomic composition. However, it was also found that the wavelength of the light from distant galaxies was increased in proportion to their distance from us. Scientists have interpreted the cause of this effect to be due to a doppler shift, meaning that it is caused by the distant galaxies moving away from us,-i.e. the expanding universe. This doppler shift is the same as one gets standing near a railway track when a train passes blowing its whistle, as the train passes by, the sound of its whistle appears to drop in frequency.
In reality the universe we live in is not expanding and is in a steady state where its matter and energy are being constantly recycled. The so called Red Shift is caused by other factors. We know from a branch of Physics known as Quantum Mechanics that the Energy of a photon of light is defined by the equation E=hv where E is the energy of the photon, h is plancks' constant and v is its frequency. If for any reason energy is lost from a photon, its frequency will decrease in accordance with this equation.
To understand redshift, one must go back to basics and examine the very
nature of light.
Light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum which extends
from very low frequency radio waves with wavelengths greater than 100 kilometers
to gamma rays and beyond with wavelengths less than 10^-14 meters. Visible light
has a wavelength of 0.65 micrometers for red to 0.43 micrometers for
violet.
In 1801, Thomas Young was the first person to successfully
demonstrate the interference of light and thus to establish it's wave character.
In 1814, Fresnel theorized that light represented an actual displacement of a
material aether which he conceived as an all-pervading substance of very small
density and of high rigidity. It was known at this time through the study of
polarization that light was a transverse wave with no longitudinal component.
Maxwell proposed a theory which required the vibration of light to be strictly
transverse with no longitudinal component and in 1864 his paper entitled "A
Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field" expressed the results of his
theoretical investigation in the form of four fundamental equations which have
since become famous as Maxwell's equations. They were based on the earlier work
of Oersted, Faraday and Henry concerning the relation between electricity and
magnetism. They summarize these relations in concise mathematical form and
constitute a starting point for the investigation of all electromagnetic
phenomena.
In 1881 the Michelson-Morley experiments attempted to detect
an aether drift by using a rotating interferometer. It was assumed that if an
aether existed, it would flow freely through all matter and could thus be
detected by variations in the fringe patterns as the interferometer was rotated.
Because result of these and other similar experiments were not able to detect an
aether drift, many scientists were led to believe that an aether did not
exist.
When Einstein put forward his theory of relativity in 1905, it was
claimed that no experiment using a rotating interferometer could prove the
existence of an aether since relativity would cancel out the apparent changes in
the length of the arms of the rotating apparatus. However, relativity did not
deny the existence of the aether as postulated by Fresnel. Indeed, Einstein
theorized that gravity was caused by the distortion of "space-time". What
exactly did he mean by "space-time"? It appears that his "space-time" is just
another name for aether.
Modern Cosmologists claim that the expansion of
the universe under the Big Bang Theory is due to the expansion of "space" and it
is the expanding "space" which is causing the stretching of photons (i.e. red
shift). Again it sounds like the use of the word "space" here is just another
name for aether. Cosmologists seem to believe that the material they call
"space" has some rather magical properties. They claim that as it expands, it
increases the distance between galaxies, that it stretches photons, but it does
not cause the size of anything within galaxies to expand. If space were
expanding. everything would expand including our measuring sticks, thus making
such expansion impossible to detect.
There seems to be universal
acceptance in the scientific community that an aether exists, whether it is
called an aether, "space-time" or "space" is immaterial. As more powerful
particle accelerators are built, scientists arefinding that a whole Zoo of
sub-atomic particles exist. We can only speculate
at this time as to what are
the smallest basic building blocks of the universe. Science cannot rule out the
possibility of an aether through which light waves are transmitted. Indeed, it
is quite possible that the aether itself may be made up of even smaller
particles. If an aether exists, then it follows that light is a transverse
electromagnetic wave in that aether as postulated by Fresnel.
The next
question that must be answered is whether or not photons actually exist as some
kind of combination of wave and particle or is light simply a wave in an aether.
It has long been argued that since light can impart momentum on particles it
strikes, it must have the properties of a particle and these particles are known
as light quanta or photons.
In the case of sound, no one argues that
sound is caused by particles called audiotons and yet a sound wave imparts
momentum on particles it strikes. Sound waves cause the molecules in the air to
move which in turn imparts the momentum in the particles they
strike.
Similarly, ocean waves can exert tremendous forces on the objects
they interact with. Again, it is the movement of the medium through which the
wave passes that imparts this action and not some hypothetical particle. The
same can be said of earthquake waves.
In the case of light waves, it is
the movement of the medium (aether) which is imparting the momentum to the
particles it strikes. Once it is accepted that light is a wave in an aether, a
number of pieces of the puzzle fall into place:
(A) If light is a wave in
an aether, then it stands to reason that the light wave would lose energy to
that aether. If a transverse wave loses energy, it's wavelength will increase
and this would then be the cause of the redshift which we observe from distant
galaxies and which is proportional to the distance traveled.
(B) If light
is losing energy to the aether, then the aether would heat up and this would
account for the microwave background radiation which has the characteristics of
a blackbody radiator at a temperature of about 2.725 degrees kelvin.
(C)
If the aether does contain energy, it means it also has mass and this could be
the missing mass which scientist have long been seeking.
(D) Cosmologists
argue that the redshift cannot be caused by loss of energy of the light wave
(tired light theory) to stray hydrogen atoms which permeate interstellar space
through the Compton effect, because, if they did, the images from distant
galaxies would be blurred. This blurring effect is not seen. However, if light
waves were losing energy to the medium through which they travel, the
distant
images would not be blurred.
Because of the downshifting in the frequency of light for whatever reason, there is a limit to how far it is possible to image distant galaxies. The actual universe will be far larger than we can imagine or detect and will probably be infinite in size.
A second argument which has been made to support the Big Bang Theory is the microwave background radiation. COBE has shown that the spectrum of the Microwave Background Radiation (MBR) is that of an ideal Black Body Radiator having a temperature of about 2.8 degrees K. It has also shown that this radiation has a Redshift/Blueshift to it, indicating that the earth is moving about 600Km/s relative to the shell of matter that emitted the radiation. Since this speed is too great for the earth's movement within the milky-way galaxy, it indicates that the source is outside our galaxy and that our galaxy is moving in relation to that source.
As indicated in the previous section dealing with redshift, the starlight photons radiated by galaxies gradually lose energy to the aether which then reradiates this energy as the Microwave Background Radiation. The wavelength of the photons of the MBR, at the peak of the spectrum radiation curve, will be about 1mm. Since the rate of loss of energy by photons will be inversely proportional to the wavelength of those photons, and since the MBR photons have a wavelength of more than a thousand times that of visible light, the percentage loss of energy by the MBR photons will be at a rate of over one thousand times less than that of a visible photon. (If it takes a visible photon 15 billion years to lose 3/4's of it's energy, then it would take a MBR photon 15,000 billion years to lose 3/4's of it's energy). It follows that since MBR photons have a range of travel of more than one thousand times that of visible light photons, they are also a thousand times more likely to encounter a galaxy and be absorbed by the matter of that galaxy then a visible light photon would.
Thus, energy is radiated by galaxies in the form of starlight photons. Energy from these photons is gradually converted to MBR photons. These MBR photons are eventually absorbed by some other galaxy.
Since the intensity of the microwave background radiation will be relatively constant throughout the universe (assuming an infinite steady state universe), the amount of energy a galaxy will absorb from it will be proportional to the size of that galaxy. The amount of energy a galaxy radiates is also proportional to it's size, thus an equilibrium will be reached where a galaxy will receive as much energy in the form of MBR photons as it itself radiates in the form of starlight photons.
A third argument that has been put forward in support of the Big Bang Theory is entropy, in that, it is argued that the universe must eventually run down into a state of thermal equilibrium. Energy exists in various forms such as atomic binding energies, thermal energy, potential and kinetic energy, etc., all of which are associated with matter, or it exists in photons which have been radiated by matter and will eventually be reabsorbed by matter. Under the Steady State Galaxy Theory as put forth above, since all matter in a Galaxy is recycled through the Neutroid on a regular basis, all energy contained by that matter is also recycled at the same time and, thus, the universe does not run down into a state of thermal equilibrium.
There is a perception that energy only flows from hot bodies to cooler ones. This is not true for radiant energy. The MBR photons which exhibit the characteristics of a 2.8 degree black body radiator do get absorbed by the much hotter material which makes up the galaxies. The critical factor which determines the direction of net flow of radiant energy is not the relative temperatures of the bodies but the energy densities they produce. In the case of our universe, the MBR radiation has an energy density equal to the starlight radiation energy density emitted by the galaxies. Thus, there is an equilibrium condition where galaxies receive as much energy in the form of MBR Radiation as they radiate in the form of Starlight Radiation and there will be no net flow of energy from the galaxies to the material in intergalactic space.
A fourth arguement which has been used to support the Big Bang theory is that it would account for the abundance of helium we find in the universe. The amount of helium present (24%) cannot be accounted for by star production and according to Gamow it was generated by the Big Bang.
Under the Steady State Galaxy theory, the nuclear fusion process which is expelling the material from the neutroid would generate large amounts of helium as well as other light elements and is the source of the excess helium found in the universe.
The latest Hubble pictures of quasars show that they are associated with galaxies and in most cases there is evidence that these galaxies have recently collided with other galaxies.
In normal galaxies, the neutroid at their center is obscured by a halo of material trapped in the neutroid's magnetic field. In the case of quasars, this halo of material has been temporarily destroyed by the collision with another galaxy and we are seeing the bare neutroid which is, as expected, extremely energetic.
The Steady State Galaxy Theory as put forth above can provide the basis for the operation of the Universe as it is seen to exist. It can not only account for the shape of all galaxies we see in the universe which is something no other theory as proposed so far can accomplish but it can also explain the existence of quasars.
As more data is gathered by the Hubble Space Telescope and other sources, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Big Bang theory cannot account for the universe around us. I believe the the Steady State Galaxy Theory as presented here can provide the basis of an alternative to the Big Bang Theory.
For a historical perspective of the Big Bang Theory see Keith Stein's Essay "The Big Bang Myth"
Please E-mail me your comments and suggestions.
