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From: elt@astrovax.UUCP (Ed Turner)
Newsgroups: net.physics,net.astro.expert
Subject: Re: quasars and the history of the universe
Message-ID: <346@astrovax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 17-May-84 22:59:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: astrovax.346
Posted: Thu May 17 22:59:08 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 18-May-84 07:12:18 EDT
References: <291@utastro.UUCP>, <2130@brl-vgr.ARPA>
Organization: Princeton Univ. Astrophysics
Lines: 19

Ethan's arguement that there are more distant quasars than nearby ones (by
factors of order 10^3 in fact) has usually been based on the association of
redshift and distance as Doug suggests.  Recently, however, it has been
pointed out by M. Schmidt and R. Green that this effect can be established
independently of the nature of the redshift (Ap. J. Lett. 1980 +/- 1yr I
think).  

Their trick is to essentially compare the relative number of bright and faint
quasars in the sky.  Given merely the assumption that energy flux falls off
like the inverse distance squared (i.e., energy conservation + geometry), they
managed to show that either the total density of quasars or their typical
luminosities must increase very rapidly
with distance.

This rather recent result puts a final nail (if one was needed) in any
strict Steady State theory in my opinion.

Ed Turner
astrovax!elt