Gravitational Red-shifts in Quasi-stellar Objects

Abstract

IT has already been pointed out that the very large energies, ∼ 10⁶⁰ erg or more, associated with some radio sources imply the existence of supermassive objects and strong gravitational fields^1,2. The subsequent discovery of large red-shifts associated with quasi-stellar objects^3–6 might well have been taken as confirming the existence of such strong fields. Greenstein and Schmidt⁷, however, gave an argument to show that the observed large red-shifts are not of gravitational origin, and this argument has generally been thought to demonstrate the cosmological nature of the quasars. The purpose of this communication is to argue that, while the conclusion of Greenstein and Schmidt⁷ is correct for their assumed model, a different model can be postulated, one which permits a gravitational explanation for the red-shifts of the quasars.