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Flat Earth Theory / What are the (flat Earth) stars?

« on: October 21, 2019, 09:35:14 PM »

FE Wiki rather vagely describes the stars as 'luminous elements'.  Anyone on the FE side care to elaborate on what that means a bit?  What causes them to be luminous, how far away are they and why are some brighter than others?

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Flat Earth Theory / Michelson Morley and Stellar Parallax

« on: October 19, 2019, 09:10:16 PM »

The Michelson Morley experiment was first performed in 1887. As is well known the purpose of the experiment was to measure the speed of light at various times during a year long period in order to try and detect subtle changes in the speed of light that could be caused by changes in the Earths orbital speed due to resistance caused by the 'ether'.  The result of the experiment was negative. That could be explained either if the Earth was stationary or if the ether didn't actually exist. The experiment has been retried several times since with equipment of increasing sensitivity. Each time the result has been consistent with the first. This remains the case down to an order of magnitude of 10^-17.

By 1840, some 47 years prior to the Michelson and Morley carrying out their first experiment, measurement of the parallax of three stars, Alpha Centuri (1.26"), 61 Cygni (0.31") and Vega (0.2619") had been confirmed. These stars were chosen because they were pleasingly bright in the case of Vega and Alpha Centuri and 61 Cygni showed a large proper motion. The measurement of the parallax provided direct observational evidence that the Earth was not stationary in space. It also allowed astronomers to determine with unprecedented accuracy the distances of each of these three stars.

FE theorists will insist that the ether does exist and so they will also claim that the lack of any detectable change in the speed of light during the course of the year (caused by the ether creating a 'drag' effect on the speed of the Earth) is explained by their belief that the Earth is stationary. However the measurement and confirmation of stellar parallax as described proves that it isn't.  So that means the MM experiment equally provides evidence that the ether does not exist. Why? because based on mainstream physics and Maxwells field equations, the ether is not needed.