Halton Arp
is a world-renowned astronomer, author of the famous "Atlas of Singular Galaxies." From the 1960s onward, Arp systematically studied everything in the cosmos that appeared strange or incongruous. For example, he discovered pairs of galaxies exhibiting "abnormal redshifts," where the foreground galaxy was receding at 10,000 km/s while its background companion—confirmed by the overlap of their images—was moving away at only 4,000 km/s. No one has ever provided an explanation for these apparent violations of Hubble's law.
When astronomers discovered quasars, a broad consensus emerged accepting that their redshift measurements also indicated immense distances. Under these conditions, given their brightness, these "quasi-stellar objects" must have radiated as much energy as an entire galaxy, despite being roughly the size of a large star. No credible model has ever been proposed to explain where these mysterious objects could derive such energy. Thus, it was entirely legitimate, in the spirit of open intellectual debate, to consider alternative hypotheses. By obtaining multiple images like the one shown here, Arp proposed that quasar redshifts might have a different origin, possibly corresponding to objects ejected by galaxies—hence the visible bridge-like structure in this image. The scientific community reacted very poorly. Astronomers claimed these "bridges" were merely optical artifacts resulting from fortuitous alignments. Some even questioned Arp's intellectual integrity, asserting that these alleged matter bridges appeared only in his own photographs. Despite efforts by the renowned astrophysicist Geoffry Burbidge to calm the situation, in 1983 the Caltech telescope allocation committee decided to bar Arp from using the instruments at Palomar and Mount Wilson observatories. He was ordered to shift toward more conventional research. Arp chose instead to refuse and resigned from the California Institute of Technology to take a position at the Max Planck Institute in Munich. After this incident, Burbidge wrote, "No responsible scientist, even one opposed to Arp's views, can accept this injustice."
The average person might assume that in the United States scientists could be more open to new or simply controversial ideas. Yet we see clearly that this is not the case.
