However useful the concept of a singularity, invented by Newton and Leibnitz, may be for precisely formulating mathematical expressions that describe reality, there are no examples of such in the real world. It is therefore not plausible to postulate the aforementioned popular delusions. Nothing starts from nothing and goes on indefinitely. Everything starts from something and encounters something that results in some sort of boundary. Of course many of the triumphs of modern physics came about by defying what was formerly thought to be plausible so the principle or notion of plausibility for all intents and purposes has been discarded by the scientific community along with the proverbial bath water. In the long run this will turn out to be a mistake.
 
 

Arp¹ presents experimental evidence that certain red-shifts are not correlated to distance. The Penzias-Wilson discovery of the 2.73^oK predicted by theory is a subsidiary piece of evidence and one can ask what is so special about expecting 0^oK background. The practice of extrapolating backwards to the boundary of initiation is not realistically encountered in the real world and may appropriately be dubbed "juvenile extrapolation". Einstein said: "Common sense is the deposit of prejudice laid down in the mind before the age of eighteen." It is my view that the opposite is true, and that an explanation that can not be formulated to persuade the eighteen-year old mind needs further work.
 
 

I would like to propose an ether model in qualitative terms which is capable of accounting for all the known properties of gravitation and electromagnetic transmission. The details of the latter will remain mostly unaddressed mainly because I haven't a clue as to how to rationalize the relation between the two transverse components of the field into their respective electric and magnetic characteristics. I will depend mainly on gravitational evidence for any potential verification of the model. All my speculations will center on the environment of the Sun. It is my view that extrapolating properties experimentally verified locally (our star) beyond the boundary of the solar system must be done with great care. It is my view that the two alleged universal constants: the Gravitational Constant and the speed of light are properties of the solar system and should be expected to be similar but quantitatively different in the vicinity of other stars. Of course events at the micro-level have been proven to be governed by the same laws by virtue of the spectral evidence so that Planck's constant is a true universal constant.
 
 

The ether model developed in the latter half of the nineteenth century that served Maxwell so well in formulating his laws of electromagnetism was shot down by the Michelson-Morley experiment. The proposed solid-like, elastically-coupled all-pervasive medium was never very plausible but a medium was required to explain the very plausible wave transmission of light, and the persistent efforts of physicists to "explain" phenomena via this medium did in fact impede the development of relativity and quantum theory. As a consequence of the spectacular successes of modern physics in accounting for previously unknown phenomena, the principle of plausibility was discarded and it became fashionable to frown upon any test of plausibility, or correlation to known properties of the real world when in conflict with phenomenologically established quantitative relationships.
 
 

I begin the formulation of my heretical resuscitated ether model by challenging the notion that the velocity of light is a universal constant. I claim that the experimental evidence of this constancy applies to the environment of our star and should not be extrapolated beyond its boundary. My problem is that I cannot conceive of a mechanism for such a property on a universal basis whereas I can on a local basis. To me a limiting velocity conjures up the concept of the terminal velocity in a gaseous medium like the speed of sound. Therefore I propose an ideal gas-like medium surrounding our Sun which has a boundary out beyond Pluto somewhere and which is capable of accounting for gravitation, electromagnetic wave transmission, the sustained motion of the planets, stellar aberration, the EPR paradox, the red-shift/distance relationship and some new presently unknown phenomena.
 
 

Let us postulate a subatomic particle (call it ethertron) which is emitted or absorbed into an electron and/or nucleus on a periodic basis and is the vehicle for energy transfer between the atom and its ethertron environment. This environment which emanates from the core of the star produces an ether which behaves very much like an ideal gas with random particle motion, where density diminishes as the inverse square of the distance from the star core to the outer boundary of the star environment. The outer boundary can be defined as the surface of a sphere beyond which the transverse components of the periodic emission are not manifest and the radial component of the emission remains to travel to some other star environment where it encounters another randomly distributed ether and re-establishes the transverse (electromagnetic) properties of the radiation.
 
 

Thus , in accordance with this model, the medium exists round and about each star and is essentially absent as a medium in interstellar space. Thus a hypothetical observer in interstellar space would not see the light that would be observed by an observer located within the spherical environment of another star.
 
 

On the basis of this hypothesis light passing through a star environment would be refracted and retarded, resulting in a red-shift which was a function of the number of star environments encountered on the journey from the source of the radiation to the observer. Herein is an interpretation to a distance/red-shift relationship which differs from the conventional Doppler interpretation. If this interpretation is correct one would expect to find higher red-shift quasars when looking out in the plane of the Milky Way than at right angles to it. This points to a relatively uncomplicated experimental test that either refutes or reinforces my central hypothesis.
 
 

According to this hypothetical model there is no explanation for the distinguishing relationship between the components of the transverse vibration, the magnetic and electric fields. For purposes of elucidating gravitational effects we assume the ethertron as of neutral charge. Then the planets and all massive bodies interact with the generalized ethertron gas-like motions interpenetrating the large masses in depth. George-Louis Le Sage² demonstrated in the late eighteenth century that such a model explains gravitational attraction as a depletion of ethertrons impinging upon the two bodies in the region between two bodies and that the force of attraction follows the inverse square law. It is presumed that the two bodies can range in size between two atoms, two planets, and the Sun and any other body. All bodies are gross in size relative to an individual ethertron so that the velocity of wave transmission within the medium is a limiting, or terminal, velocity, to wit: the speed of light. In other words all particles in the ethertron medium are like parachutes in the air.
 
 

It follows that the gravitational constant is not a universal constant but is a property of a particular star environment and varies from star to star. It also follows that since the transfer of ethertrons between the ether environment and particles is a function of temperature the gravitational constant is also a function of temperature. It also follows that the Sun is less massive than it is conventionally presumed to be. These suppositions are crucial to the survival of the proposed hypothesis and should lend themselves to experimental verification or refutation even without a quantitative formulation of the model.
 
 

In accordance with this model the orbits and motions of the planets and their satellites are not the result of original motions unimpaired over time by any resistance but rather the dynamic consequences of the impact and interchange of ethertrons with the heavenly bodies. Thus the orbits of the planets are a consequence of the rotation of the Sun and only out at the periphery near Pluto is there substantial deviation for this pattern. Justification of the rotation of the planets is one of the many details I have been unable to work out in terms of a model for the interaction of the ethertron and constituents of the atom.
 
 

However I offer the following crude attempt to calculate the mass of the ethertron based upon an analogy to an ideal-gas-type particle situation like the propagation of sound:

From analogy with the propagation of sound:

What is the value of fo? My guess is that it is the frequency of the radiation associated with the energy change of an electron in the free state and one in the highest energy level of a Hydrogen atom. If this is of the order of ten megahertz and since the mass of the electron is 10^-27gms, there are 10¹³ ethertrons in one electron and/or nucleus.
 
 

Consider the following comments about this crude speculative endeavor. The assumption is that there are two types of ethertron emission. The emission corresponding to the energy exchanges resulting from nuclear transformations involve massive releases and correspond by analogy to boiling. The other type of emission is that associated with radiation and/or absorption resulting from the changing energy states between electrons and nuclei.
 
 

The latter process is assumed by analogy to resemble a sort of sublimation and we try to follow the ethertron as it leaves the atomic neighborhood and commingles with its neighbors in what is assumed to be an ideal-gas-type medium. The expression (4) shows there is some rationale for assuming an ideal-gas-type medium.
 
 

Invoking Planck's constant (which I consider a true universal constant) says in effect that these ethertrons are being emitted in a periodic fashion and that this is the mechanism whereby the wave character of the photon derives. The selection of the base emission (or absorption) frequency f_o corresponds to the minimum energy change allowed. My off-he-wall guess at this value is in contradiction to quantum theory which would allow a photon of energy approaching zero as the quantum number, N, approaches infinity. Physically this means that an electron can approach an arbitrarily low velocity as it orbits the nucleus on the verge of becoming free and that there is a finite very low probability for such a transition. Realistically it is not feasible to confirm this experimentally for values of N much greater than 100 (which is a long way from infinity). It seems to me that there is a need to modify the theory to account for the same kind of virtual boundary that I postulated for the ether atmosphere in a manner analogous to the way in which a boundary is prescribed for the earth's atmosphere. In any case the concept of a quantum frequecy, f_o, would act as a fundamental frequency which implies that it would be evident in the fine spectra of the elements and its value could be ascertained experimentally and this is another acid test of the validity of these speculations. If my guess for f_o is close, we are looking at the order of ten trillion ethertrons per electron.
 
 

The situation at the star core involves a massive boiling of ethertrons. If we assume that Newton's third law applies to these mechanistic particles, the reaction forces on the core account for the high temperature and pressure and all the other stellar observed properties presently attributed to the density related effect of gravitation, except of course the hypothecated "black hole". The star core envisioned here has no gravitational field inside its periphery. The forces operating radially towards the center are presumed to be the reaction forces resulting from the massive ejection of ethertrons. This model avoids the absurdity of the "black hole" which comes about as a consequence of the juvenile extrapolation of gravitation down to a singularity, ascribing the gravitational force as a property of matter, not as matter interacting with a gravitational field of ethertrons.
 
 

I acknowledge here the application of my own pejorative term: "juvenile extrapolation" to myself for extrapolating Newton's third law as a prime law that applies to the subatomic realm (without any evidence of course). Oh well, everybody extrapolates and only the other guy's extrapolations are juvenile.
 
 

Concerning the concept of the photon, there is more energy associated with a higher frequency photon because there are more ethertrons emitted or absorbed per unit of time. The various dual slit paradoxes are resolved because there are field properties associated with the photon such that interactions with the apparatus can be understood in terms of polarization, interference, and other wave properties, especially the Doppler effect. A single photon may be considered as the number of ethertrons required to bring about an energy level change in a single atom. Properties like red-shifts, polarization and the like have their root common sense aspects restored to them. Wave-particle duality becomes comprehensible to eighteen-year olds.
 
 

If one recognizes relativity calculations as neat artificial mathematical manifestations of the consequences of a terminal velocity in the ether, one is restored to the notion that clocks appear to slow down and masses appear to increase as they approach terminal velocity in the ether. The concept of space-time becomes a "virtual reality" that is useful for correlating phenomenological observations but has no meaning with respect to true reality.
 
 

If these speculations turn out to be correct the ever so neat theory of the birth of stars will need drastic and fundamental revisions. In fact if these speculations should become transformed into a theory by others who possess the skills I lack, more questions will be raised than will be answered by the institutionalization of these heresies. This may be the most compelling reason for paying attention to my wild off-the-wall fantasies.
 
 

In summary, what has been presented in qualitative terms is a model of a discontinuous ether which is generated within each star and which has a boundary at the surface of the core of the star within which, because there is only massive emission (boiling) of ethertrons, there is no gravitational field. Beyond the surface of the core out until its outer boundary, there is an ether environment which behaves like an ideal gas. Electromagnetic radiation and gravitation are the properties of this ether that follow the Newtonian and wave propagation laws of classical physics. At the outer boundary of the star, ethertrons are transmitted into interstellar space radially without the transverse vibrations characteristic of a random motion medium. The ethertrons march into interstellar space until they encounter another ether environment whence they re-establish their transverse wave properties, albeit with modified but reproducible qualities. One such quality is the phenomenon of stellar aberration which was not consonant with the ether theory that preceded Michelson-Morley.
 
 

The immediate potential tests of these speculations which might be verified qualitatively and experimentally and might contribute to quantitative formulations are the predictions of asymmetric red-shifts with respect to the plane of our local galaxy, the verification that G = f(T) and that the plane of the orbit of Pluto should be moving towards the plane of the ecliptic. Since there is a lengthy history on Pluto, maybe some enterprising astronomer will examine the data for some small shift that has to be looked for in order to be found.

Comments:

The following paper, The Doctrine of Original Spin, attempts an explanation of the rotation of the planets of the Solar System on the basis of the discontinuous ether model.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
¹Quasars Redshifts and Controversies, Halton Arp, 1987 Author published

Seeing Red, Halton Arp,1998, Apeiron http://redshift.vif.com

²George-Louis Lesage, lucrece Newtonien; Nouveaux Memoires De L’Academie Royal de Sciences et Belle Letters, 1747, pp404-431.( I know of no English translation)