What crucial preliminary observation did Vesto Slipher provide that hinted at the nature of distant nebulae?

Answer

His light showed strong redshift, suggesting rapid motion away from us.

Vesto Slipher’s earlier work provided essential input for Hubble’s later conclusion regarding cosmic expansion. Slipher conducted spectral analysis on these distant objects, finding that their light exhibited a strong redshift. In cosmology, redshift indicates that an object is moving away from the observer, and the magnitude of the shift relates to the speed of recession. This finding strongly suggested that these nebulae were not static components of the Milky Way but were rapidly moving objects external to our system. Hubble later integrated Slipher’s velocity measurements with his own independent distance measurements to formally establish Hubble's Law and the expanding universe.

What crucial preliminary observation did Vesto Slipher provide that hinted at the nature of distant nebulae?

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