Double Stars

 

The observation of the behavior of double stars becomes a problem if the speed of light is considered to have a universal speed and the velocity of the star is added to that. Since double stars can have large velocities relative to each other, some strange effects could occur as they were observed in their rotations around each other. The theory presented here indicates that no problem would occur in that respect. It will be helpful to analyze what happens when light from a source leaves the reference frame (RF) associated with that source and enters a different RF.

 

A star has a RF associated with it, and the star also serves as a light source. Light emitted by the star will initially travel within the star’s RF and will have a natural velocity determined by that RF. It will appear to an outside observer that the star’s velocity has been added to that of the light (which it has to some extent). An observer on the star would see the light travel out in a manner that remains the same regardless of the velocity of the star relative to another star – that is, as though the star were motionless. The light will make a transition from the star’s RF to the RF that predominates the space around it. The space RF will then control the velocity of the light so that it is consistent with the space RF’s clock rate. Then the velocity coming from each star is traveling at the same velocity toward the observer as seen from the observer’s point of view.

 

Consider what an outside observer who could see a spherical light wave front issuing from the star might see (in slow motion)[1]. At first the sphere would expand evenly from the star with the star remaining centered. The expansion would accelerate as the distance from the star increased. This is because the clock rate increases as the distance from the star increases, and thus the speed of the light increases. Then, as the light wave sphere made a gradual transition from the star’s RF to the RF of the space around it, to an outside observer, the star would start moving off from the center of the sphere in the direction of the velocity of the star. This is because the space’s RF would start exerting more control over the speed of the light than the star’s RF.  This would appear to an outside observer as the sphere decelerating with respect to the star. When the space RF is the predominant one regulating the speed of the spherical wave, the expansion of the sphere would no longer be accelerated, and the part of the wave heading toward the observer would have the velocity C relative to the observer. This is true whether the star is heading toward or away from the observer. Thus light from either star travels at the same speed toward an observer on earth.

 

As noted in the room example, the photons would probably shift toward the part of the spherical wave in the direction of the velocity of the star. Thus a star moving toward an observer could appear brighter than the same star moving away from the observer provided the angular velocity of the star is great enough. The part of the wave front reaching earth from a distant star has had the photon density in a unit area greatly diminished as a function of the squared distance from the star by the time it reaches earth. In order to see this variation in brightness, the rotational plane of the double star system would have to be closely aligned with the line of sight between the double system and us and, as noted above, the angular velocity of the rotation would have to be high enough so that sufficient photons reach us to produce a brightness change.

 

 

Experiments to demonstrate the photon shift are suggested in the section Examples – Photon Shift.