On Sun, 30 Sep 2012 14:24:40 -0700 (PDT), Double-A
wrote:

On Sep 30, 1:47*pm, Painius wrote:
On Sun, 30 Sep 2012 12:58:19 -0700 (PDT), Double-A

wrote:
On Sep 30, 12:06*pm, Painius wrote:
On Fri, 28 Sep 2012 12:19:22 -0700 (PDT), Double-A

wrote:
Astronomers have been observing faster than light phenomena for a long
time now.

``We see almost a dozen clouds which appear to be moving out from the
galaxy's center at between four and six times the speed of light.
These are all located in a narrow jet of gas streaming out from the
region of the black hole at the galaxy's center," said Dr. John
Biretta
of the Space Telescope Science Institute.

But then they have to always try to explain them away.

``We believe this apparent speed translates into an actual velocity
just slightly below that of light
itself." *Biretta

What gives? *Are things really moving faster than light?

http://www.stsci.edu/ftp/science/m87/press.txt

No, Double-A, this is just the *appearance* of superluminal speeds.
Only space itself can move (expand, contract) faster than lightspeed.

It's also possible that the jets are the movement of spatial foams. In
that case, it would be possible for them to move faster than light.

Yes, Paine, maybe it's space itself that's going faster than light,
and the matter imbedded in it is along for the ride. *Try to find an
explanation for it. *Don't just try to explain every FTL observation
away.

Double-A

You know that I'm not big on the presently expanding space idea, but I
do think it's not implausible that space *can* expand and contract,
and that space can do so at FTL velocities. *Scientists presently
accept that, on the large scale, space expands and the galaxies in it
are along for the ride. *So it should not be too much of a stretch to
accept that the smaller-scale jets are spewings of spatial "material"
that go FTL, and that the matter within it is along for the ride.


I think this is expecially lkkely to happen in the vicinity of black
holes.

The "slingshot effect" taken to its highest limits?

--
Indelibly yours,
Paine @ http://astronomy.painellsworth.net/
"Love almost everything; you can only learn to love by loving."