Abstract

In 1929, Edwin Hubble wrote in his classic paper demonstrating a correlation between redshift and distance. "The outstanding feature, however, is the possibility that the velocity-distance relation may represent the de Sitter effect...." Since the discovery of quasars more than thirty years ago, many more-or-less plausible explanations for the quasar redshift have been proposed. Although the de Sitter redshift was the first known cosmological redshift, it hs not yet been considered as a possible etiology for the redshift of quasars. We address the question, "Is it possible that the quasar redshift is a de Sitter redshift?" Perhaps the asymptotic character of a gravitational de Sitter redshift could help explain the quasar phenomenon: objects with high redshifts that appear to be almost as bright as objects with intermediate redshifts. Reconsidering the possibility of a nonlinear de Sitter redshift-distance relation, we find quasar intrinsic brightness to be rather ordinary. Given a de Sitter redshift-distance law, intrinsic brightness is found to be independent of redshift over five orders of magnitude.