Observational Problems in Extragalactic Astronomy

Abstract

A large number of observations have accumulated which represent baffling mysteries from the standpoint of current astronomy. A sample of the most crucial of these cases is reviewed and updated. Evidence has slowly built up to the point where often each individual object is a formidable challenge to conventional theory. But, most importantly, it is now possible to appreciate the common pattern which mutually reinforces all the separate results.

These empirical discordances point directly at known weaknesses in the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe. New data is used to introduce a proposal which accounts for both the data which gave rise to the Big Bang interpretation and which also satisfies the discordant results which have accumulated over the last quarter of a century. Though perhaps only a primitive beginning, the new interpretation demonstrates that observations need not be discarded because they disagree with current theory. The major conclusion from the cases discussed here is that the present observational paradoxes represent spectacular opportunities to make new and fundamental discoveries about the universe.