Autcsrgv.147 net.space utcsrgv!donald Fri Mar 5 19:08:19 1982 Quasars Re: Quasars as spaceships. The idea that quasars are the exhausts of spaceships smacks faintly of the ridiculous (excuse me for being a pro-establishment stuffed shirt). Immediately obvious questions arise: - If the exhaust of these hypothetical is pure photons, then perhaps one would observe these enormous redshifts, but then the question of how the spectral lines by which these redshifts are measured got there! It seems to me that a pure photon exhaust (via a an enormous galaxy-sized laser) would *not* contain spectral lines by which a redshift may be detected. On the other hand, if these spaceships were shooting out very energetic matter as reaction mass, then we would not observe redshifts because the reaction mass (which is emitting the light) would be racing to- wards us, cancelling the forward velocity of the spaceship. - There must me quite a few of these civilizations have a strong dislike of via lactea to be shootin' away from us all around the visible celestial sphere. Re: Superluminal Quasars. There is nothing wrong with quasars apparently receding from each other at superluminal velocities as measured by *us*. However, in their own frame of reference each quasar must see the other as traveling at a speed less than C. ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.