Portuguese cosmologist João Magueijo is a respected scientist, and a professor of theoretical physics at the Imperial College London (ICL), in the United Kingdom. He is known as one of the pioneers of the varying speed of light (VSL) theory.
The implications that proving this theory could have on modern science are monumental. The work would prove that Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity is wrong, and would forever chance the way astrophysicists look at the Universe.
Because of these important implications, scientists are taking the VSL theory very seriously, and are investigating it thoroughly. It needs to be proven from every possible angle, before it can be adopted, if that is the case.
“A number of surprising observations made at the threshold of the 21st century have left cosmologists confused and other physicists in doubt over the reliability of cosmology,” Magueijo explains.
“For instance it has been found that the cosmological expansion appears to be accelerating. This is contrary to common sense, as it implies that on large scales gravity is repulsive. Another upheaval resulted from the high redshift mapping of the fine structure constant,” he adds.
The FSC, also called alpha, was believed to exist independent of time, but this turned out to be false, in addition, the research says, scientists also saw very high energy cosmic rays on rare occasions.
According to special relativity, these events should have exhibited a cut-off well below the observed energies. As such, some construe these observations as demonstrating for the first time ever that the theory may be wrong or incomplete, Daily Galaxy reports.
“Is the Universe trying to tell us something radical about the foundations of physics? Or are astronomers merely trying to irritate the conservative physicist?” Magueijo goes on to say.
“One dramatic possibility is that the speed of light is a dynamic variable. In addition, it could be that near black holes the speed of light congeals to zero, preventing observers from approaching the ‘singularity” and invalidating most current black hole theories,” he explains.
“It might also be true that in the vicinity of cosmic strings the speed of light is much higher, allowing for high-speed travel without the annoyances associated with time dilation effects,” the expert concludes. via Softpedia