[Physics] Physics Digest, Vol 4, Issue 1

[cj at mb-soft.com]

Many of the members of this group seem to like astrophysics issues. I have a logical question for the members of this group, about the so-called Einstein Cross.




Just a few decades ago, a few astronomers saw some unexpected patterns of stars, generally cross-shaped patterns of four stars. A speculation was made that what was seen was the effect of a Gravitational Lens, and it was called an Einstein Cross. Very quickly, the Physics Community totally accepted the idea. More than a hundred (alleged) Einstein Crosses have been found so far.




However, it seems to me that the reasoning has been amazingly weak. IF such a Gravitation al Lens phenomenon exists, WHY would a distant star ONLY be seen by us as FOUR images? Shouldn't six or ten or a hundred images sometimes be seen from Earth? Worse, careful examination of the alleged Einstein Crosses do NOT show the "perfect symmetry" that a gravitational lens should necessary create. Instead, even the four images seen are NOT precisely equally spaced, and the (alleged) images are often of different optical Magnitude, where a gravitational lens would create EXACTLY identical images, whether there are four or ten or a hundred images. It also turns out that the spectrum of the different images are not even identical. 




Optimistically, I hope we DO find a true Einstein Cross, but people need to do far more careful analysis of the brightness and spectrum and spacing of all the (alleged) images of Gravitational Lenses.




I see many similar logical sloppiness issues in modern Physics. Impressively optimistic reasoning is applied to Exoplanet claims. No one seems to have considered what the effects for even Proxima Centauri would be when Venus happens to Transit our Sun. Even with the Earth and Venus having very low orbital inclination, WE only witness Venus Transits twice every 120 years. Did you sense any darkness in 2004 or in 2012 for a few hours when Venus covered over about 1/13,000 of the Sun's brightness? That effect only reduced the brightness of the Sun for us by less than 1/10 optical magnitude, an extremely minimal effect. From Proxima Centauri, even very sensitive optical instruments would not detect the Sun dimming by less than 1/10 optical magnitude, especially since the Sun regularly has far more brightness variations due to Sunspots. Similarly, the gravitational "wobbling" effects of the Sun due to Venus pulling the Sun sideways (being a pulling mass which is only around 1/400,000 that of the Sun) would cause impressively tiny spectral oscillations, every eight months or so.




I have no problem with scientists being "optimistic" but I expect that extreme care must always be applied in solid analysis.




Carl Johnson



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