redshift

noun

red·shift | \ ˈred-ˈshift

Definition of redshift

: a displacement of the spectrum of a celestial body toward longer wavelengths that is a consequence of the Doppler effect or the gravitational field of the source also : a measurement of a celestial body's redshift equal to the ratio of the displacement of a spectral line to its known unshifted wavelength and used especially to calculate the body's distance from earth

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Examples of redshift in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web But the striking thing is that there is data for a galaxy at an extremely large redshift (z = 16.7, for those who understand these things). — John Timmer, Ars Technica, 26 July 2022 The higher the redshift, the farther away – and back in time – the source. — Julia Musto, Fox News, 22 July 2022 For example, a light bulb that emits pure violet light, if placed in a region of the cosmos roughly corresponding to a redshift of 1 as seen from Earth, would appear as deep red. — Fabio Pacucci, Scientific American, 1 July 2022 Light from more distant galaxies takes longer to reach us, and the expansion of the universe stretches the wavelength of this ancient light toward the red end of the visible spectrum: the more distant the galaxy, the larger the cosmic redshift. — Ben Brubaker, Scientific American, 4 May 2022 Watching the redshift allows astronomers to determine how far away the light came from. — Joshua Hawkins, BGR, 18 Jan. 2022 This is why measuring the redshift of any one individual object isn’t very reliable for telling you anything in particular about the Universe. — Ethan Siegel, Forbes, 1 Sep. 2021 This gravitational redshift has been measured for stars orbiting black holes, for light traveling vertically in Earth’s gravitational field, from the light coming from the Sun, and even for light passing through growing galaxy clusters. — Ethan Siegel, Forbes, 25 May 2021 As the Universe expands, the wavelength of the light traveling through it stretches towards longer and longer wavelengths: a cosmological redshift. — Ethan Siegel, Forbes, 27 May 2021 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'redshift.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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