A Conversation for Universal Redshift
Red Shift and Photon Energy
Naomissy Started conversation Feb 24, 2012
I still have some trouble with red shift. My problems come from some schoolgirl physics which said that the energy of a photon is the product of h times its frequency. E=hf.
So a photon of blue light has been emitted in the distant past by a galaxy which is now far, far away. But by the time it hits my eye it is now a photon of red light (yes I know that is a simplification, and it is actually, shall we say, less blue). It has been red shifted, fair enough. But therefore its energy, has changed too. It is less energetic. So where has that extra energy gone? The red shift concept would seem to suggest the photon has gradually lost that energy as it was in transit.
Red Shift and Photon Energy
Naomissy Posted Feb 24, 2012
Oh er...and if Andromeda is heading our way, have its photons been blue shifted, ever so slightly? How did they gain the extra energy?
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Red Shift and Photon Energy
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