Seeing Red: Redshifts, Cosmology and Academic Science

by Halton C. Arp

Arp's book is a frontal assault on the standard model of the universe, replete with anecdotes and illustrations, including 8 pages of colour plates. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0968368905
• ISBN13: 9780968368909
• Release Date: June 1997
• Publisher: Apeiron
• Length: 306 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Fascinating and extremely disturbing

If Dr. Arp's earlier book, "Quasars, Redshifts, and Controversies" put a few pinpricks into the Big Bang and Redshift-Distance Relation theories, this book blows open a hole so large you could drive a Mack truck through it. Dr. Arp shows us a number of galaxies that appear to be associated with quasars or other extremely compact, radio-emitting objects that have grossly different redshifts. If these objects are indeed related then the inconsistent redshifts mean the accepted distances for these objects are bogus, to use a scientific term. Dr. Arp states in the preface that if you are math-impaired you will still be able to follow the book easily because the eye-popping evidence is all in the pictures. And so it is. What is so disturbing is the effect on Halton Arp's career this decades-long search for the truth has wrought. In the earlier book one of the appendices is the letter from CalTech throwing him off the 200-inch Hale telescope on Mt. Palomar. In this book he describes how difficult or impossible it has been for him to publish his research. Dr. Arp is no crackpot claiming aliens are making crop circles or the Bermuda Triangle is swallowing up ships--he received his Ph.D with honors from CalTech itself, and created the Catalog of Peculiar Galaxies (using of course the same 200-inch Hale telescope he was later denied). In the later part of the book Dr. Arp also catalogs several other scientific theories, such as continental drift, which were heresy at the time they were published but later became universally accepted. He discusses the sometimes stifiling atmosphere of academia, and how it impedes the investigation of new ideas. Finally, Dr. Arp offers some intriguing ideas on just where those quasars and other active objects came from in the first place. This book is a page-turner, and you don't need to understand calculus or anything else to read it. A basic understanding of statistics would help but is not necessary. My only gripe is that the paper used is so thin the illustrations can be seen somewhat on the opposite side of the page. If you have any interest in astronomy or cosmology I would say this book is a must read.

Be ready to give up the Big Bang

Arp argues convincingly that the holy grail of cosmology, the hubble flow, exists only in the minds of astronomers. There are abundant examples of high-redshift quasars which are physically connected to low-redshift galaxies. There is convincing evidence that redshift is quantized, which is inexplicable in the conventional picture where redshift is caused by recession speed. Big bang cosmology has been overthrown, and the evidence against it is getting stronger with new observations.Mainstream astronomy, unfortunately, does not want to recognize this evidence. Scientists who have built whole careers on a flawed theory are not ready to admit that they have been totally, completely wrong. Instead, they have chosen a much easier way to deal with this unpleasant evidence, one that has been succesfully employed in many other fields of science: they suppress, ignore & ridicule, while they keep adding epicycles to their ever more complicated theory of the big bang.Arp's account of the utterly unscientific behavior of the scientific establishment is sobering. It reveals once more how the great human endeavor of science, which should be an unbiased and objective search for the truth, has been corrupted by the vested interests of individuals and academic institutions, blind belief in authority and by herd mentality, and thus turned into something that is eerily reminiscent of the medieval Catholic Church. Then, as today, observations and new theories were suppresed by those in power for contradicting what was considered the truth.Although this book is a bit technical in nature, it is accessible to any layperson with some basic knowledge of astronomy. If that describes you, or if you are interested in great case material for a study of the sociology of science, I can unconditionally recommend it.

Important Reading

Arp systematically describes observational evidence against the established idea that redshift is always an indicator of distance. These observational results (high-redshift objects interacting with low redshift objects, and much more) themselves reveal an elegant pattern of galaxy evolution which mainstream astronomy has entirely missed. I feel that I've learned something genuinely new about the extragalactic universe than I have in many years! (Note: one of the other reviewers comment that Arp neglects supernova evidence in favor of the redshift/velocity relation is incorrect--Arp's model actually predicts the same time dilation factor for supernova decay as the Big Bang model).

Triumph of Empirical Astronomy

Having read many of Dr. Arp's articles in the astronomical journals, I was not sure that I would find anything new in Seeing Red. I was wrong! The contents of this book put together an accessible argument that leaves no doubt in the open minded readers mind that the Big Bang is wrong! The most stunning revelation in Seeing Red for me was the association of Abell galaxy clusters with nearby galaxies and quasars. The Abell clusters fall in close proximity to nearby galaxies. This is a remarkable coincidence if the Abell clusters are actually at their redshift distance. Anyone who looks at the pictures in Seeing Red will be able to understand why the Big Bang's future lies on the ash heap of theories based upon faulty assumptions.The views presented in this book will provide a foundation for the future of cosmology.

Cosmology for the new millenium

Dr Arp's new book, like the one before it (Quasars, Redshifts and Controversies -Interstellar Media. 1988) further supports his claim that the redshifted light from distant quasars and galaxies is not the result recessional velocity in an expanding universe. Building on the evidence set out in the earlier book, Dr Arp discusses more recent evidence, from x-ray satellites, that show further examples of quasars/galaxy associations which question the validity of the currently popular 'big bang' expanding universe theory.In the new book, Dr Arp also discusses the prejudice and institutionalised pressures that can be excerted by the science establishment in an effort to preserve established paradigms and belief systems and discourage the dissident and unorthodox view. Arp is well qualified to discuss this issue, having personally experienced an almost 'Galilian' attempt by the establishment to suppress his reasearch over the past 25 years.SEEING RED is as much a damning report on the professional dishonesty and hypocrisy that permeates the very foundations of modern cosmology's 'Ivory Tower', as it is a catalogue of further evidence that may prove be the catalyst that affords a changed and radically new way of looking at the universe in the new millenium.