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Volume 11: Pages 541-562, 1998

Wavelength Radiated by Aging Starlight

Chester J. Marcinkowski

113 Sargent Drive, Snyder, New York 14226‐4066 U.S.A.

A thermodynamic approach is used to calculate the EM wavelength radiated by an average‐aged photon of starlight with wavelength λ_a                           1.76 μm and energy w_a = hc/λ_a. A needle‐shaped photon volume V is estimated partly from previous work to give a photon energy density u_a = w_a/V. The surface temperature T_a of this photon model is deduced by applying the standard thermodynamic relation u_a = aT_a⁴, where the constant a is known. The result is a photon surface temperature T_a   3 K for an average‐aged photon of starlight. This aging photon is assumed to radiate roughly like a blackbody. Another thermodynamic relation then provides a most likely radiated frequency v_m (and hence radiated photon energy) at the peak of the blackbody spectrum. The resulting wavelength is λ_m   0.510/T_a   0.2 cm. The corresponding wavelength of the cosmic microwave radiation is λ_m″   0.187 cm. This suggests that some portion of the cosmic microwave radiation might be produced by aging photons of starlight. A survey is made of the evidence favoring the photon as a needle‐shaped object.

Keywords: cosmic microwave radiation, Hubble constant, redshift, photons, cosmology, electromagnetic theory

Received: December 4, 1997; Published online: December 15, 2008