Could Cosmic Redshift velocity be wrong?
by
Stephen Goodfellow

Here are a few rapid sketches from one of my 1979 notebooks, exploring the concept, what if cosmic Red Shift has nothing to do with velocity?

Redshift mechanism is presently argued as proof for the expansion of the universe, in order to explain the famous observation that the spectral redshifts of distant galaxies, quasars, and intergalactic gas clouds increase in proportion to their distance from the observer. This hypothesis is a key feature of the Big Bang model of physical cosmology.

But is it really so? Consider the following thought model:

You are suspended in a swimming pool. The water of the swimming pool...

...is dyed ever so slightly red...

...Light bulbs are of different intensities - they represent different galaxies..

Since the blue end of the spectrum is absorbed by intergalactic space faster than the red, the observer can only distinguish the closer sources of approaching light as approaching motion...

A light source that is located at an appreciable distance will not show any blue shift, even though it is approaching us...

Because of the intergalactic medium (mostly hydrogen,) a far away light source will appear increasingly red with respect to its distance from the observer. Hence the phenomenon of Redshift...

This scenario suggests that the Doppler Redshift is effective only at "short" distances, but that - as the illustration infers - Redshift at cosmic distances does not denote velocity, only distance, and would go some way to explaining why galaxies so close to the supposed "Big Bang" look much the same as they do around our local intergalactic neighborhood.

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