redshift

noun red·shift \ ˈred-ˈshift \

|Updated on: 28 May 2018

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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redshifted

play \ˈred-ˈshif-təd\ adjective

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Recent Examples of redshift from the Web

Richard Ellis, a professor of astrophysics at University College London and co-author of the study, tells Amos that this oxygen has a redshift of 9.1.

— jason daley, Smithsonian, "Astronomers Find Signature From the Universe’s Earliest Known Stars," 22 May 2018
Astronomers first studied faraway star surfaces by looking at the redshift or blueshift of light coming from the stars, a technique called Doppler imaging that reveals movement on the stars' surfaces.

— jay bennett, Popular Mechanics, "The Most Detailed Image of Another Star Is Also a Preview of Our Sun's Dying Days," 1 Feb. 2018
But the story of dark energy doesn't get told by neighborhood redshifts.

— paul sutter astrophysicist, Fox News, "Does dark energy exist?," 30 June 2017
The former measures X-rays, the latter specializes in detecting redshift, the stretching of light that is detected as something travels through space.

— sarah kaplan, The Denver Post, "This black hole is being pushed around its galaxy by gravitational waves," 10 Apr. 2017
So a single supernova redshift measurement gives us the total amount of universal stretch in the intervening billions of years between us and the explosion.

— paul sutter astrophysicist, Fox News, "Does dark energy exist?," 30 June 2017

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.