What are red shifts?

Answer 1

When we observe bodies producing light in the cosmos, we observe a phenomenon called Doppler shift (similar to the sound changing on a horn as train passes you, but with light rather than sound). In Doppler shift light waves moving toward us will be compressed together (this is called blue shift), and light waves that are moving away from us will be expanded (this is called red shift). The faster the light is moving toward or away from us the MORE Doppler shift is observed.

Now, looking into the cosmos we see this phenomenon really happening, and the further away from us a star, galaxy or quasar is observed the more red shift it has, hence the faster it is moving away from us. In fact if we look way toward the edge of the universe has we see light that has shifted so far that it is no longer in the visible spectrum, it has become infra red light then microwave light. But we can still see it with radio telescopes and when we look using these instruments we see back in time (almost) to when the universe was formed by the "big bang" at that time all the universe was a single point called a singularity.

This red shift was discovered in 1929 by astronomer Edwin Hubble and is called "Hubble Shift".

The red shift supports the theory, with scientific observation, that the cosmos is expanding and the speed it is expanding is faster the further away from us.

Answer 2

When you hear a train go by, blowing it's whistle, the tone is higher as it approaches you, then suddenly drops as it's going by. It's called "Doppler shift", because the sound waves have more energy as the train approaches you, then less energy as it moves away.

Kind of the same thing happens with light. Now, light *always* travels at 186,282 miles/second in space. But if an object producing light is *approaching* you,, it has more energy, and is shifted to the blue. If an object is moving away, it has *less* energy, and it's light is shifted to the red.

Generally, the farther an object is, the greater it's red shift is.

Answer 3

The wavelengths of light from an object lengthern as it moves away from the observer,causing the light to shift towards the red end of the spectrum.This is called red shift.

Answer 4

A variable used to measure distance in the cosmos.
Basically, the red indicates that an object is moving farther away opposed to a blue shift indicationg and object is moving closer, such as the andromeda galaxy.