Is the Universe Really Expanding?

Cosmology proffers two competing theories for the observation, to wit, galaxies seem to be moving away from earth at speeds that are proportional to their distance. This phenomenon is, itself, not questioned, is referred to as, Hubble’s Law.

In the first school of thought, Hubble’s Law is rationalized by the assumption, to wit, the universe is expanding — the seemingly direct explanation (see for example, Hartnett 2011). If the universe is expanding, it either is the case that new matter is arriving in the universe, or that existing galaxies are expanding. In absence of any evidence that earth’s own galaxy — the Milky Way Galaxy — is expanding (evidence that likely is impossible to obtain, because we are part of the Milky Way Galaxy), it, perhaps can be asserted that validity of the ‘universe is expanding’ hypothesis rests on the arrival of new matter in the universe that, simultaneously, pushes out other matter. The notion, however, that new matter can ‘push’ other matter outwards raises questions in respect of the stability of the universe, questions that are not borne out by the existing evidence.

In the second school of thought, the universe is static, but due to the hypothesis, to wit, the amount of energy that is lost by photons as they travel intergalactically increases with time, over time, it takes increasingly longer amounts of time for light from other galaxies to arrive on earth, resulting in the phenomenon, to wit, whereas the locations of galaxies remain exactly the same, there exists the seeming appearance that they have moved further away (see for example, LaViolette 1986). Clearly, if we assume that the time it takes for light to arrive on earth is perturbed, that is, slowed down by the arrival of new matter that arrives in the universe — matter which, not yet having it’s very own light, absorbs some of the traveling light — there is arrival at a rational mechanism for the ‘static universe’ rationalization of Hubble’s Law.

Arrival of new matter in the universe seems to be the more defensible thesis for either of the ‘expanding universe’ or ‘static universe’ rationalizations of Hubble’s Law.