Vic: Australian scientists change speed of light
MELBOURNE, Aug 8 AAP - Scientists at Sydney's Macquarie University have reportedlyclaimed that the speed of light, considered a constant, has in fact slowed down.
Researchers at the Australian Centre for Astro-biology at Macquarie University madethe discovery by measuring light that has travelled for billions of years to reach Earthfrom giant stellar objects, called quasars.
Research leader Paul Davies has concluded that, based on his team's measurements ofthe quasars, light speed, which clocks 300,000 kilometres a second, has slowed.
"The first thing that goes out the window is the theory of relativity, which has beenthe corner-stone of modern physics for 100 years," Professor Davies told The Age newspaper.
Relativity, expressed in Einstein's famous equation, E=mc2, assumes the speed of lightto be constant.
Light speed may have been close to infinity soon after the big bang and fallen rapidlybefore levelling out, he said.
Co-author Charles Lineweaver, from the Department of Astrophysics at the Universityof New South Wales, said scientists may have miscalculated how fast the universe expandedin its infancy.
Their theory has been published in today's edition of Nature science journal, the paper said.
AAP ag/hu/
KEYWORD: LIGHT
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