Alan said, "So now you're saying that the fabric is moving round, leaving the stars behind? Come off it. Either the stars are moving or they're not." Reply, Alan, I said "It is the FABRIC of space containing these bodies (which can individually move with some elasticity within this fabric) that is moving around the central stationary earth." If you read it again, slowly you will see that the stars are moving with the fabric (aether) but due to the elasticity of the medium, they do have their own freedom to move independently to the same extent as do our own planetary bodies. Alan said, "There is no fabric. It's a figment of your fertile imagination." Thank you. It is indeed a compliment to be considered as having a fertile imagination. However this idea of a medium pemeating all "space" is not mine. Nor is the idea of four dimensional space/time. To deny the aether is rather difficult in light of the existance of magnetic fields # 1 and the wave characteristics of electromagnetic radiation. My use of the word "space" is not apt, as space is "nothing". I should say the aether permeates all of the material universe, not all space, unless one postulates that the created universe is infinite. Though one cannot materially perceive the aether, it is detected (radio propagation) , and its solidity may be analogous to the solidity of water to a bullet, or the atmosphere to a returning shuttle, or to the hydrogen density of "empty space" between the stars to a body approaching the speed of light. I hope that clarifies what I was saying. None of this is new. As a physicist, your mind should be open to this hypothesis. Simply put then, as this star at the rim of creation approaches the speed of light it is meeting the solidity of the aether travelling much faster in the direction of rotation. It is this "solidity" which I termed elastic at sublight speeds, which prevents the star hurling off the rim, and keeping it on course around the world, and the source of the energy if you want to call it that. To keep it simple we have to leave out the TIME factor here. Philip. #1 magnetic "lines of force" are not actual lines that emanate from the magnetising force. They are a strained condition in the aether which surrounds the electrical condition creating it. That they appear as lines is merely the effect this condition has upon the magnetic materials such as iron that alone can detect it. eg iron filings. The field is like a spring under tension, the energy required to set it up is equal to that returned when the field collapses. It is stored in the aether, like the bubble 2000 ft deep in the sea. Think laterally, don't follow the mob, and you might be like Faraday or Tesla.plm.