Take a look at the cosmic microwave background radiation and ya can see a slight bias caused by the movement of the solar system.
Now Christopher “He’s Alive” Gordon at the University of Oxford and a coupla pals have worked out where we’re goin’ by estimating our motion relative to the CMB using Type Ia supernovae standard candles.
So which way are we headed? [Cue: drum roll] We’re a-trundlin and a-tootlin’ along at a sedate 475 kilometers per second in the direction of the constellation of Sextans in the northern hemisphere. (In galactic co-ordinates that’s l=238 and b=45.)
Ah’ve had a good look with the arXivblog binoculars and there don’t seem to be nothing of interest in that direction. Disappointing really.
Ref: arxiv.org/abs/0711.4196: Determining the Motion of the Solar System Relative to the Cosmic Microwave Background using Type Ia Supernovae
So: there is “ether”, after all!
Am I correct imagining that the measured “absolute” speed is that of the combined motion of the Earth around the Sun, the motion of the Sun around the galaxy center, the motion of the latter around… something else, etc.?
Yep, it’s our motion relative to the CMB which is about as absolute as you can get. And nope, there ain’t no ether