© Charles Chandler

 

Lloyd said:

Wouldn't it be okay if galactic redshifts indicate distance, but quasar redshifts only indicate velocity of matter in jets (I guess electrons)? It seems certain that quasar redshifts generally or never indicate distance, because the high redshift quasar in front of a low redshift galaxy proves that the quasar is not as far away as its redshift would seem to show.

Yes, I agree with this. And it isn't just that the quasars appear to be connected to galaxies — the redshifts of the quasars are clustered around the redshifts of the parent galaxies, with the quasars having greater or lesser shifts, and in regular patterns (e.g., the Karlsson Periodicity). So yes, the redshift of the galaxy probably equates to distance from us (though we don't know how much), and distance equates to time. Therefore, if we're seeing more peculiar galaxies at a higher redshift, and more spirals at a lower redshift, that probably means that peculiars are evolving into spirals. I just wanted to clearly identify all of the assumptions underlying the conclusions, since sometimes good assumptions turn into bad ones. ;)