Stellar Aberration and the Unjustified Denial of Ether
| Scientific Paper | |
|---|---|
| Title | Stellar Aberration and the Unjustified Denial of Ether |
| Author(s) | Carel van der Togt |
| Keywords | {{{keywords}}} |
| Published | 2005 |
| Journal | Galilean Electrodynamics |
| Volume | 16 |
| Number | 4 |
| Pages | 75-77 |
Abstract
In the 18th and 19th century, physicists were looking for a medium by means of which light propagates; they called it "ether". In theory, one can assume two ethers: one not influenced by anything and therefore at absolute rest: the immobile ether; or another one that can be influenced, for example by a moving mass: the dragged ether. In 1727 James Bradley observed the star called y-Draconis and found the first evidence of stellar aberration, an effect correlated with the movement of Earth around Sun. After a long debate, science concluded that stellar aberration was not possible with dragged ether. Then in 1887, Michelson and Morley publicized their famous experiment, which proved that immobile ether could not exist. The fact that both ethers were thus denied by science, combined with the observation that the speed of light always appears to be constant and independent of the movement of the source, made Einstein's Special Relativity Theory inevitable. But the scientific debate concerning the dragged ether and the stellar aberration had one serious omission - one here shown to explain that with dragged ether, stellar aberration has to occur.
