has light wavelength compression been proven?

[billy_boy_999]

has there been an experiment verifying the compressing of light's wavelength by gravity? i thought i heard of one verifying light's wavelength lengthening (redshift) by the earth back in the 60's or something, i was wondering if we'd proved the compression(blueshift)?

[russ_watters]

has there been an experiment verifying the compressing of light's wavelength by gravity? i thought i heard of one verifying light's wavelength lengthening (redshift) by the earth back in the 60's or something, i was wondering if we'd proved the compression(blueshift)? The X-rays emitted by matter falling into black holes were a prediction of gravitational redshift via GR. They have been observationally verified.

For earth, I don't know - not a lot of gravity here (relatively speaking).

[jdavel]

For earth, I don't know - not a lot of gravity here (relatively speaking).

Is there any other way to speak about gravity? :wink:

[Nereid]

has there been an experiment verifying the compressing of light's wavelength by gravity? i thought i heard of one verifying light's wavelength lengthening (redshift) by the earth back in the 60's or something, i was wondering if we'd proved the compression(blueshift)?Good question! One of the early 'gravitational redshift' experiments was (IIRC) a 57Fe gamma Mossbauer effect, over a vertical distance of several (tens of?) metres. I don't know if the experimenters went on to put the source on a higher storey of the lab building, and the detector at a lower one ... :smile:

[chroot]

If I'm not mistaken, Nereid, the Pound & Rebka experiment you cite (the one performed at the Harvard tower) involved beams going in both directions.

- Warren

[billy_boy_999]

excellent, so obviously compression has been pretty well proved, thanks guys