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Using Standard Candles

There is a better use for standard candles than currently done.

Yesterday (June 2) I posted about the misuse of the supernova standard candle.
Instead of using the supernova for distance it is used to compare with the red shift of the host galaxy. When doing that comparison the supernova could be considered super luminous so its distance calculation is ignored, in deference to the unrelated red shift.

Cepheid variable stars are are being misused the same way.

A recent news story reported observations of an eclipsing binary system of 2 Cepheids. From the story:

Because a star will appear dimmer the farther away we are from it, astronomers can obtain a reliable measurement of a Cepheid star's distance from this brightness measurement. This useful feature of Cepheids has earned them the nickname "standard candles."

This allows astronomers to use them to gauge the distance between galaxies and the rate of expansion of the universe.
That last statement clearly describes the problem. A
Cepheid provides only a distance; they offer nothing about the supposed expansion of the universe. Cepheids were used to establish a connection between red shift and distance and astronomers made the mistake to proceed with red shift as velocity even though Cepheids had no role in that mistake. If used correctly I suspect Cepheids would cast doubt on this expansion simply because a  red shift used in a distance calculation could show a different result in different directions than an accompanying Cepheid.

Astronomers use red shifts to make the wrong conclusion about the expansion.

Instead Cepheids were used originally to relate red shift to distance but later astronomers made the critical mistake of using that red shift (from the intergalactic medium) as an actual velocity of the distant object.  This is just wrong.

The expansion theory arose like this:

 Georges Lemaitre, in a 1927 article, independently derived that the universe might be expanding, observed the proportionality between recessional velocity of and distance to distant bodies, and suggested an estimated value of the proportionality constant, which when corrected by Hubble became known as the Hubble constant. Though the Hubble constant H-o is roughly constant in the velocity-distance space at any given moment in time, the Hubble parameter H, which the Hubble constant is the current value of, varies with time, so the term 'constant' is sometimes thought of as somewhat of a misnomer.

Before 1927 the proportional relationship between red shift and distance was observed. The distance measurement technique used at the time was a Cepheid variable. In 1923 the first Cepheid was found in M31 establishing its location  as beyond our Milky Way.

In 1936 Hubble proposed our Local Group was isolated on an island separated from the Hubble Flow.
I assume the primary reason was the number of galaxies around M31 with blue shifts (from Calcium ions, not hydrogen atoms). Using Hubble's Law these galaxies should have had negative distances. Since that never happened astronomers must have used the Cepheids for distances not the spectrum line shift like other galaxies. Despite knowing from the start Hubble's Law could not be applied universally, it was, except for obvious problem of a blue shift.

Much later scientists determined this red shift for all distant galaxies is caused by neutral hydrogen (NH) atoms in intergalactic medium. With a roughly uniform density the relationship between distance and red shift would be roughly uniform. However changes in this density over distance affects that relationship. For example, galaxies in the Virgo cluster appear to have lower red shifts than those in our Local Group suggesting the NH density is lower in that cluster.

There is a better use for standard candles. They could be used as distance measurements thereby avoiding the known problems with using absorption and emission lines.

When a Cepheid or supernova is used in conjunction with a galactic red shift, information is being gathered about the density of NH in that direction, in the various galaxy clusters in that line of sight.

Astronomers are preoccupied with red shifts as velocities. That mistake results in errors in theories based on that mistake. Red shifts introduce bogus velocities.

From the news story noted above I do not know if current technology allows determining a Supernova distance to 9 billion light years. I do not know how reliable the brightness of a supernova can be measured at such a distance. With enough samples of these dim distant objects (Cepheid or supernova) perhaps a limit for their use can be determined for current imaging.

When standard candles are used for distances then the true layout of the universe will be clearer.

This post got this comment:
 Then everything is wrong.....and will always be. Surely this lie cannot be sustained ? I reckon the universe has been around forever....measure that with a candle. David Michalets Do you have an idea how it can be measured ? I would think it would be like trying to measure fireflies, they will all be unique. I suppose a reference point is required apart from us, are we overthinking the question ? Many many years ago at the Observatory in Cape Town I asked the question "what was before the big bang" ? and the Astronomer replied " you will have to ask god" well I knew then straight away there was no "stop sign" any where and have allowed that thought to grow with the EUT. Your posts are fantastic in there complex simplicity if you know what I mean, easy to understand the fundamental flaws in mainstream science. Its ridiculous how wrong they are and they know it ? surely. Thanks again, your posts are easily read and extremely informative.

I replied with:

definitely NOT  'everything is wrong.' I am actually encouraged with better imaging capabilities for dimmer objects these predictable variable stars can provide viable distance data over a deeper range - to replace red shifts which do not. Certainly they are not found in every galaxy but they present the opportunity for using valid data that probably everyone will accept. Perhaps another electrical oscillation of 'light' (or any part of the spectrum) with a predictable pattern will be found in the universe to encompass another class of objects.

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Here is the list of topics in this Cosmology Topic Group .
