I agree with Leonard, John and Phil. General laws of physics apply. Match
the pattern and you've got the element(s). Then apply the red shift factor.
Maybe this will help, Thomas (or just muddy the water!):
In the early 20th century, scientists who were studying the spectra of
galaxies noticed that their spectral lines were shifted toward the longer,
or redder, wavelengths. (Yeah, ignore the nearby galaxies.) Edwin Hubble
eventually linked this "red shift" to the expansion of the universe, with
the spectral line shift generally referred to as the cosmological red shift.
This is a doppler effect item, where the red shift indicates the rate of a
galaxy's recession. Carried further, Hubble's Law states that the recession
velocity of a galaxy is proportional to its distance. The more red-shifted
the spectra, the further the item is from us. And Quasars are red shifted
like there's no tomorrow!
When light travels vast distances, and is affected by massive objects, then
gravitational red shift also comes into play. Just part of Einstein's
General Theory of Relativity. The majority of scientists today believe a
Quasar's enormous red shift is due to cosmological red shift, with
gravitational red shift, or anything else for that matter, playing very
little part. If this is truly the case, then Quasars are incredible
distances from us, very small, extremely bright, and have velocities well
above 90% of the speed of light. A minority group believes that
gravitational red shift, along with some other unknown mechanism, is
actually responsible for the true red shift, and that Quasars are actually
much closer to us, much larger, not as bright, etc. I tend to support the
those-things-are-a-lonnnnnnng-distance-from-us routine. If this is indeed
correct, then Quasars are among the oldest items in the universe.
As noted, the *very* early expansion of the universe now appears to have
been much quicker than originally thought (lightspeed would have been the
slow lane), so John's comment about PFM and wild guessing certainly applies.
These are pretty exciting times we're living in! Can't wait to see what the
next ten to twenty years of research brings our way.
...Bob...