04-April-2006, 04:48 AM
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Established Member
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Baja California
Posts: 1,851
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Originally Posted by afterburner
8. Photons deviating when travelling great distances?
When a photon gets created, in some galaxy on the other side of the universe, and we observe it...does or did that photon ever change its cource?
That is to say, does a photon ALWAYS travel in a straight line? (this is assuming there are no gravitational forces acting on the photon) I ask becasue they travel in waves...read below
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Another strange thing happens to our mote of light. As noted earlier it tries to travel in a straight line, but can't quite succeed. Stars affect its path, clusters and even galaxies pull it off its course. Stranger still is that even after these affects are taken into account, it still curves slightly! The mass of the entire universe affects its trajectory. Space itself is curved and our particle follows this curve. In the two million lightyears it travels in its life this curve is a subtle influence, but is real! Astronomers would very much like to know the exact shape of this curve: positive as on a sphere or negative as on a saddle-shaped surface. The photon knows, but isn't telling.
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The Life of a Photon
Titana
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