An astronomer on Earth observes red light at 680 nm from a distant galaxy. The astronomy knows that the red light that was emitted from the galaxy source was 656 nm. The speed of light is 3E[8] m/s. Pretend that the Earth is stationary. What is the velocity of the galaxy as measured from Earth and is it approaching or receding?

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An astronomer on Earth observes red light at 680 nm from a distant
galaxy. The astronomy knows that the red light that was emitted from
the galaxy source was 656 nm. The speed of light is 3E[8] m/s.
Pretend that the Earth is stationary.
What is the velocity of the galaxy as measured from Earth and is it
approaching or receding?
Transcribed Image Text:An astronomer on Earth observes red light at 680 nm from a distant galaxy. The astronomy knows that the red light that was emitted from the galaxy source was 656 nm. The speed of light is 3E[8] m/s. Pretend that the Earth is stationary. What is the velocity of the galaxy as measured from Earth and is it approaching or receding?
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In this case, the astronomer on earth observed red light from a galaxy. The wavelength of the red light is different from what he observed due to the Doppler shift. The relation between observed wavelength, the wavelength from the source, and the velocity of the frame of reference is can be found using the doppler shift. By using the Doppler shift formula we can able to calculate the velocity of the earth as measured from earth, in other words, the relative velocity of the galaxy to the earth. 

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