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A challenge has been thrown down to the consistency of the speed of light, based on an anomaly from the most closely observed supernovae of all time.
In 1987 astronomers witnessed the only supernova in 400 years close enough to Earth to see with the naked eye. The first hint of the event came not from telescopes, but neutrino detectors.
Neutrinos and photons were assumed to have crossed space between the Large Magellanic Cloud and us at the speed of light. However, light does not always travel at 3x108 m/s. Just as glass or water will slow light down, the dense core of a supernova is expected to impede photons so that neutrinos will reach us first.
Models of supernovae suggest the delay should be about three hours. However, rather than witnessing a single burst of neutrinos three hours before the first light was observed, detectors picked up two bursts, one 7.7 hours earlier, and the other 4.7 hours. Some models of supernovae predict two collapses, and thus two rounds of neutrinos, but the timing is puzzling since it is the first round that should beat the light by three hours.
Professor James Franson of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, believes that these observations require a rewrite of light's behavior. He claims that quantum mechanical effects slow light down under certain circumstances. The effect is very, very small, but over a distance of 163,000 light years could account for the discrepancy in observations.
In the New Journal of Physics, Franson draws on vacuum polarization, a well established phenomenon where a photon of light sometimes turns into an electron-positron pair. These then recombine to become a photon again, traveling along the same path, but after a tiny delay (see diagram).
However, Franson argues that these events are not random, but affected by gravitational fields.
"Roughly speaking, the gravitational potential changes the energy of a virtual electron-positron pair, which in turn produces a small change in the energy of a photon,” Franson says. “This results in a small correction to the angular frequency of a photon and thus its velocity.” He describes the equivalent effects on neutrinos as “negligibly small in comparison”.
originally posted by: littlegarner2014t
Speed of light is subjective not objective. The speed of light is not constant and therefore changes speed. We have measured the speed of light but not over great distances. It is impossible to give light a given value due to many inconsistency. Nothing can escape a black hole not even light. every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Black holes suckin light faster than light travels or breaking light speed.
point in case as far as we can tell nothing is a misconception it's theoretical nothing we know is for sure
originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
originally posted by: littlegarner2014t
Speed of light is subjective not objective. The speed of light is not constant and therefore changes speed. We have measured the speed of light but not over great distances. It is impossible to give light a given value due to many inconsistency. Nothing can escape a black hole not even light. every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Black holes suckin light faster than light travels or breaking light speed.
Except that is not how light gets pulled in. Black holes do not pull light in, that is a misconception. Black holes bend space into it, so the light technically is just traveling a straight line from it's perspective, but from out perspective the line is curved into the black hole.
Speed of light is not subjective ... when we talk about the speed of light it is the speed in a vacuum. That is constant as far as we can tell.
originally posted by: littlegarner2014t
point in case as far as we can tell nothing is a misconception it's theoretical nothing we know is for sure
originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
originally posted by: littlegarner2014t
Speed of light is subjective not objective. The speed of light is not constant and therefore changes speed. We have measured the speed of light but not over great distances. It is impossible to give light a given value due to many inconsistency. Nothing can escape a black hole not even light. every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Black holes suckin light faster than light travels or breaking light speed.
Except that is not how light gets pulled in. Black holes do not pull light in, that is a misconception. Black holes bend space into it, so the light technically is just traveling a straight line from it's perspective, but from out perspective the line is curved into the black hole.
Speed of light is not subjective ... when we talk about the speed of light it is the speed in a vacuum. That is constant as far as we can tell.