When we look up at the night sky, at what is known as the celestial sphere, we observe a sea of objects in the universe.
With the human eye, we can see the moon, planets, and stars of the Milky Way galaxy. With telescopes, we can see further, revealing hidden distant galaxies as far as billions of light years away. Or are they?
Cosmic Mapping
In mapping these objects and their relative positions, known as Cosmography, there are two factors we take into account:
- The distance away, which is based on various calculation techniques, and
- The angle that the light arrived at Earth.
Seems straight-forward enough, right?
For example, let's say a galaxy's distance away is calculated by comparing the apparent brightness of a Supernova Type 1a in the galaxy to the known luminosity of a Supernova Type 1a, which is a common practice for calculating galactic distances due to this supernova being considered a standard candle. The result is that the cosmic mapping system of the galaxy's positioning is done using this distance and the angle that we observe the light arriving at Earth.
On the surface, this makes sense. Right? It makes so much sense that the entire practice lacks any critical thinking over the process at all. It is just how we map the universe. In a way, this is considered simple and operates on "autopilot" in physics as we seek deeper understandings far beyond the "basics" of cosmic mapping.
There is just one problem with this technique that is overlooked: the light is assumed to travel in essentially a straight path to reach Earth.
Uninfluenced, light will travel in a straight line. However, when influenced by the force of gravity of an object, it can have its trajectory bend in much the same way as a projectile on Earth has its trajectory curve. This is known as gravitational lensing.
For objects proximal to Earth such as the moon, any such effects on light traveling from them would be minimal and cosmic mapping of their location would be essentially accurate. In other words, their actual location relative to Earth when the light arriving at Earth left the body would be essentially where we observe them to be. Even the stars of the Milky Way galaxy are close when compared to distant galaxies.
But for distant galaxies, this effect is nontrivial. With enough gravitational lensing, the original angle that the light left the galaxy to travel to Earth could be completely opposite from the angle it arrives at Earth.
Generally speaking, we are aware of gravitational lensing occurring due to intermediary galaxies. These are minimal effects which we do account for.
However, there are objects much larger than galaxies in the universe, such as the Great Attractor. This is said to be a "gravitational anomaly" so immense that all galaxies around it appear to be flowing rapidly in its direction, including the Milky Way.
This is depicted by Courtois et al., Cosmography of the Local Universe. It stands to reason, then, if it is massive enough to influence the trajectory of galaxies, its effects on light’s pathing would be substantial.
As a result, the further light has to travel to reach Earth, the more time gravitational lensing effects of objects such as the Great Attractor have to influence the direction light is traveling.
When light arrives at Earth from a distant galaxy, it could literally be light from the Milky Way galaxy itself because of this.
GAMA202627 GAMA202627 is said to be "identical" in make-up to the Milky Way, having equivalent "large" and "small" Magellanic Clouds.
However, because we assume the light has traveled in a straight line, our cosmic mapping adds another new and distinct galaxy at a distant location when these are essentially optical illusions.
Great Attractor and its Electromagnetic Field
With sufficient gravitational lensing, light does not just bend around an object but rather is pulled into a Figure-8 flow pattern, where it physically travels through the body like neutrinos passing through the Earth. The summation of the flow produced by this gravitational lensing produces electromagnetic fields.
This is extremely non-trivial. As this shows how gravity produces electromagnetism, it proves that gravitational lensing plays an extremely critical role in how the universe functions. I write extensively about this in other articles here on Steemit which I encourage you to read, such as The Big Bang's Big Assumption. Also, you can read my research paper, The Universal Principle of Natural Philosophy and/or watch its accompanying video, as well as my short book, The Simple Reality, here.
Conclusion
The further light travels from a galaxy to reach Earth, the less its apparent position matches its actual position (when the light reaching Earth originated from it). As this is not accounted for, all distant galaxies are improperly mapped, leading to a mapping of the observed universe that is so drastically inaccurate that it is akin to the modern day "edge of the flat Earth" map. In reality, it is galaxies all the way down (and up).
Thanks for reading!! Hope you enjoyed it.
-Steve Scully
CascadingUniverse.Org