The Novel Optical System of Measuring the Speed of Starlight

Jingshown Wu, Yen-Ru Huang, Shenq-Tsong Chang, Hen-Wai Tsao, San-Liang Lee, Wei-Cheng Lin

2014

Abstract

We proposed a novel method and implemented an optical system accordingly to measure the speed of starlight by using the well-known speed of light from a terrestrial source, c, as a metric basis. This system consists of a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter modulated starlight, terrestrial red and infrared lights into pulses simultaneously. These pulses were detected by the distant receiver. A high speed oscilloscope is used to record the pulses arrival times, where the terrestrial infrared pulse and the red pulse are used as the trigger and the reference signals. During the measurement, we employed a terrestrial white light travelling along the exact path of the starlight to calibrate the system. We found that the starlight pulses arrived at the receiver with various degrees of delays, compared with that of the terrestrial white light pulse. The values of the delays are likely related to the relative radial velocities of the stars. The result implies that the measured apparent speed of starlight is not constant.

References

  1. Froome, K. D., and Essen, L., 1969. The Velocity of Light of Radio Waves, Academic Press, New York, USA.
  2. Sanders, J. H., 1965. The Velocity of Light, Pergamon Press Ltd., Oxford, UK.
  3. French, A. P., 1968. Special Relativity, W. W. Norton & Company Inc., New York, USA.
  4. Dickey, J. O., Bender, P. L., Faller, J. E., Newhall, X. X., Ricklefs, R. L., Ries, J. G., Shelus, P. J., Veillet, C., Whipple, A. L., Wiant, J. R., Williams, J. G., and Yoder, C. F., 1994. Science 265, 482.
  5. Anderson, J. D., Laing, P. A., Lau, E. L., Liu, A. S., Nieto, M. M., and Turyshev, S. G., 1998. Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 2858.
  6. Ritz, W., 1908. Amn.de Chim, et de Phys. 13, 145-275.
  7. Torres, G., Claret, A., and Young, P. A., 2009. Astrophys. J. 700, 1349.
  8. Wilson, R. E., 1963. General Catalogue of Stellar Radial Velocities, Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication, Washington, D. C., USA.
  9. Wu, J., Chang, S. -T., Tsao, H. -W., Huang, Y. -R., Lee, S. -L., et al., 2012. Testing the Constancy of the velocity of Light. Am. Phy. Soc. April Meeting. Atlanta, USA.
  10. Huang, Y. -R., Wu, J., Lin, W. -C., Chang, S. -T., Lee, S. - L., Tsao, H. -W., et. al., 2012. An Optical System of Comparing the Speeds of Lights from Moving Stars. ODF 12. Saint-Petersburg, Russia.
  11. Wu, J., Chang, S. -T., Tsao, H. -W., Huang, Y. -R., Lee, S. -L., et. al., 2013. A Method of Comparing the Speed of Starlight and the Speed of Light from a Terrestrial Source. SPIE Optics + Photonics 2013. San Diego, USA.
  12. Huang, Y. -R., Wu, J., Chang, S. -T., Tsao, H. -W., Lee, S. -L., and Lin, W. -C., 2013. Measurement of Differences and Relativity between Speeds of Light from Various Stars. APPC 12. Chiba, Japan.
Download


Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

Wu J., Huang Y., Chang S., Tsao H., Lee S. and Lin W. (2014). The Novel Optical System of Measuring the Speed of Starlight . In Proceedings of 2nd International Conference on Photonics, Optics and Laser Technology - Volume 1: PHOTOPTICS, ISBN 978-989-758-008-6, pages 39-44. DOI: 10.5220/0004874100390044


in Bibtex Style

@conference{photoptics14,
author={Jingshown Wu and Yen-Ru Huang and Shenq-Tsong Chang and Hen-Wai Tsao and San-Liang Lee and Wei-Cheng Lin},
title={The Novel Optical System of Measuring the Speed of Starlight},
booktitle={Proceedings of 2nd International Conference on Photonics, Optics and Laser Technology - Volume 1: PHOTOPTICS,},
year={2014},
pages={39-44},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0004874100390044},
isbn={978-989-758-008-6},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of 2nd International Conference on Photonics, Optics and Laser Technology - Volume 1: PHOTOPTICS,
TI - The Novel Optical System of Measuring the Speed of Starlight
SN - 978-989-758-008-6
AU - Wu J.
AU - Huang Y.
AU - Chang S.
AU - Tsao H.
AU - Lee S.
AU - Lin W.
PY - 2014
SP - 39
EP - 44
DO - 10.5220/0004874100390044