Science

An experiment built to detect Earth's motion through space found absolutely nothing

In 1887, Albert Michelson and Edward Morley built an extremely sensitive interferometer expecting to measure Earth's speed through the 'luminiferous ether' physicists assumed carried light waves. They found no difference at all, in any direction. The stubbornly null result had no explanation until Einstein's special relativity did away with the ether entirely in 1905.

Albert A. Michelson & Edward W. Morley, On the Relative Motion of the Earth and the Luminiferous Ether — American Journal of Science, 1887

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