Cosmological Redshift: Where Has the Energy Gone?

Join the discussion
Registration is free. Start your own thread to ask a follow-up.
3 replies · 2K views
Glenn G
Messages
113
Reaction score
12
As the Universe expands and the photons stretch to longer wavelengths (say from UV photons to the CMBR now) where has the energy gone since longer wavelength photons have less energy?
Regards,
G.
 
Astronomy news on Phys.org
mfb said:
It is gone.

There is no global energy conservation in general relativity.

I'm surprised it's just gone mfb.
I was wondering if there's a type of gravitational potential it goes but for photons instead of matter.
I suppose then that in total that's quite a bit of energy that's gone if all photons get stretched this way.
G.