Abstract
THE interesting suggestion has recently been made by Landovitz and Marshall1 that a gravitational red shift might be detectable in observations of the 21-cm. hydrogen line from the inner regions of the Galaxy. The effect is proportional to the difference in gravitational potential between the point of emission and the Earth's surface, and so could give independent information on the mass of the Galaxy. Currently accepted values for the mass and scale of the Galaxy would lead to a frequency shift of −3 kc./s. for radiation originating near the galactic centre ; this corresponds to a Doppler velocity of +0.7 km./sec.
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References
Landovitz, L. F., and Marshall, L., Nature, 187, 223 (1960).
Kerr, F. J., Hindman, J. V., and Gum, C. S., Austral. J. Phys., 12, 270 (1959).
Muller, C. A., and Westerhout, G., Bull. Astro. Inst. Neth., 13 (No. 475), 151 (1957).
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Erickson, W. C., and Helfer, H. L., Astron. J., 65, 1 (1960).
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KERR, F. The Possibility of Detecting a Gravitational Red Shift in 21-cm Radiation from the Galaxy. Nature 188, 216–217 (1960). https://doi.org/10.1038/188216a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/188216a0
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