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Tired light is a class of hypothetical redshift mechanisms that was proposed as an alternative explanation for the redshift-distance relationship. These models have been proposed as alternatives to the models that involve the expansion of the universe. The concept was first proposed in 1929 by Fritz Zwicky, who suggested that if photons lost energy over time through collisions with other particles in a regular way, the more distant objects would appear redder than more nearby ones.
Zwicky acknowledged that any sort of scattering of light would blur the images of distant objects more than what is seen. Additionally, the surface brightness of galaxies evolving with time, time dilation of cosmological sources, and a thermal spectrum of the cosmic microwave background have been observed—these effects should not be present if the cosmological redshift was due to any tired light scattering mechanism.[1][2][3] Despite periodic re-examination of the concept, tired light has not been supported by observational tests and remains a fringe topic in astrophysics.[4]
- ^ Wright, E. L. Errors in Tired Light Cosmology.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
treuwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Peebles, P. J. E. (1998). "The Standard Cosmological Model". In Greco, M. (ed.). Rencontres de Physique de la Vallee d'Aosta. arXiv:astro-ph/9806201.
- ^ Overduin, James Martin; Wesson, Paul S. (2008). The light/dark universe: light from galaxies, dark matter and dark energy. World Scientific Publishing. p. 10. ISBN 978-981-283-441-6.