Abstract
NEITHER classical physics nor relativity supposes that the rays of light from a moving object are curved as a result of its velocity ; the rays which left it at any given time can therefore be prolonged straight backwards (at any later time) until they intersect at the point which it occupied when they were emitted. If a fixed object is also at that point, any observer anywhere will thus see that at the instant of emission the two bodies coincided. Mr. Hines‘s difficulty has its origin in a misconception ; light leaves the source in all directions, not in some specified direction, and although the direction of the particular ray that reaches the observer may depend on the motion of the source, some ray or other will reach him in every case ; and every ray points straight back to the point where the source was at the time of emission. The argument in respect of that particular point is independent of any changes in the velocity of the source, whether before or after, and it thus applies to every point of the orbit of a binary ; if the true orbit were visible as a fixed luminous wire, the star would always be seen on the wire.
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ATKINSON, R. [Letters to the Editors]. Nature 163, 249 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163249b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163249b0
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