that it takes about 300 Gigayears (GY) of comoving expansion to convey a point, or test particle, starting one lightyear from the center of a void and ending at the interface 150,000,000 lightyears from the center of the void. How long does it take to reach the halfway point at 75,000,000 lightyears? Remarkably, it takes 290 GY for expansion to reach one half the radius of a full-size cosmic bubble. This leaves only 10 GY in which to expand the balance of the distance to the interface; and is achieved by a relentless increase in both the speed and acceleration of the outward space flow (caused by expansion). Obviously comoving expansion takes a very long time, both in relative and absolute terms. The prolonged slow expansion and almost negligible space flow in the central portion of a void, leads to an interesting possibility. Part of the DSSU theory of galaxy formation is described as follows: As space expands in three spatial dimensions and flows radially outward from the cosmic bubble’s central void, space accumulates matter by a formation process in which primitive matter emerges from the aether, from the fundamental fluctuators that constitute aether. The primitive matter grows and evolves —manifesting as conventional energy and mass particles. The important point here is that matter accumulation within the void depends primarily on time and consequently on radial position. Now if we divide the total expansion-flow time of 300 GY (Graph 3) into two equal time periods along the full nominal radius: then 150 GY is spent along the first million lightyears of length (actually considerably less than one million lightyears, only 11,400 LY, using equation (6-1a)); and 150 GY along the much longer 149 million lightyears, of the latter portion of the radius. In descriptive terms, it is as if space sits leisurely at the core of the void for 150 Gigayears and then spends another 150 Gigayears expanding completely across the void (to the interface boundary). This is a disproportionate consequence of the ‘miracle’ of compounding or exponential growth! Back to the galaxy formation process. A vital quantity for determining the rate of galaxy formation is missing. What is the rate of matter formation and accumulation per unit of volume? Equivalently one may ask, how long does it take for a galaxy to form from pure vacuum energy and its derivatives? It could not possibly be a short time span —otherwise the voids would not be voids and would be filled with proto-galaxies and mature galaxies. It would have to be as long as possible. A reasonable assumption is that the time span of formation is not more than 150 GY. By the time a region of matter and energy accumulation reaches the interface it will have evolved into a full grown elliptical. This result is predictable and observable (only the evolution time is contentious but seems reasonable). If we accept this conservative time frame for the formation of galaxies in expanding and flowing space, and we recognize that the same time span (about 150 GY) and the same rate of space expansion occurs in the central core (approx. one MLY radius) of the void, we can reasonably surmise that galaxies also form, and even mature, in this region. It is possible that galaxy formation is great enough to sustain a small cluster of galaxies. The result would be a void core-region where expansion space-flow is actually radially inward. The geometric center of each void may actually be a region of net spacecontraction. Without knowing the rate of matter formation per unit of volume, the size and degree of contraction remains speculative. Full grown galaxies arriving at the interface is an observable fact; the existence of galaxies in the center of a cosmic-bubble void is an interesting idea and actually has been reported but not verified.

Verification requires the inclusion of the following properties applied to a small group of galaxies: All must be spherical, or almost spherical. No galaxy rotation (a consequence of the fact that expansion space-flow is negligibly small). All members must have practically identical redshifts. The redshift distance must correspond to the center of a void. Significantly, there should be no intrinsic velocity and as a result the redshift would provide a pure measure of depth position. There is also the crucial question of stability: Would the galaxies or proto-galaxies of this contracting region be stable in their location, or would they, one by one, drift into the outbound flow and slid down the hill of spaceexpansion upon which they are balanced? Or maybe this entire contracting region is unstable in its location. It would seem that any such pocket of accumulation is unstable, something like balancing a marble on top of a balloon. The core may act as a temporary nucleus, lose its balance, and drift away; while a new nucleus begins to grow and replace the former. In either case, the void core simply serves as a nursery for nascent galaxies. 10. Conclusions and Closing Comments The foregoing discussion is much more than the presentation of an aether theory. If there is one concept that unifies the present paper on the flow-, expansion-, and contraction of aether, it is the phenomenon of gravitation. The common theme in the discussion of space flow, expansion, and contraction is that they are all aspects of gravitation. Although the space contraction Postulate of the DSSU is designated as the gravity Postulate both space expansion and contraction are participants in the mechanism of gravity. Together they produce a unified gravity consisting of primary, secondary and tertiary effects (as described in the text). What this means is that our two Space Postulates (one associated with the usual contractile gravity the other associated with the divergent Lambda effect), applied to Space Flow Equations and Expansion-Contraction Rates — RANZAN 15 their designated regional domains, constitute the key elements of a theory of unified gravity. What we experience locally as the acceleration due to gravity is the acceleration of space-flow itself. We define a contractile gravity field this way: The intensity of the gravitational effect at a particular location is a measure of the local spaceflow acceleration with respect to the gravitating body. 11 And what about a unified gravity field? The intensity of gravity at a particular location in a unified gravity field (which necessarily is of cosmic proportion) is a measure of the bulk space-flow acceleration, whether diverging or converging, and which ultimately converges on the nodal mass concentration at the very center. Thus, the two Space Postulates —along with matter/energy supplied by the Matter-formation Postulate— constitute a theory of unified gravity. Aspects of the theory, immediately apparent and made obvious in Figure 8, are the range limit and non-sphericity of gravity. We may safely conclude that since gravity fields have limits and those limits lack spherical symmetry, Newton’s constant G cannot be a true constant of Nature. It cannot be applied to the truly cosmic scale. While individual unified gravity fields are strictly limited in range, the number of such fields has no limit whatsoever. It is implicit in the cellular nature of the Universe. And as so often happens in DSSU explorations, we gain new insight into old ideas. A case in point: Physicists tell us that, ... that there is no ‘pure’ inertial motion [i.e. unaccelerated]; all motion is accelerated and space cannot be conceived to exist without a gravitational field ... 12 Or in Einstein’s words “the gravitational field cannot be done away with.” 13 The image in Figure 8 makes it clear why it is so. Place a test object anywhere in the unified gravity field and it will accelerate (along the trajectories shown). Place a test object anywhere in the universe,14 for that matter, and it will accelerate since every region is part of a gravitational field. Acceleration, aAETHER FLOW, is the all-important measure of gravity —the very intensity of gravity. Specifically, acceleration is simply the time-rate-ofchange of the aether flow speed (or velocity when expressed in vector form). The direction of flow is referenced to a ‘local’ mass structure or to the Euclidean structure of the Cellular Universe (as was done with the acceleration of aether in the void). Using the Newtonian Laws and classical physics we can interpret expressions for both acceleration and velocity of aether. DSSU Theory, the Broader Appeal In a world experiencing a new dark age; a world in which over 90% of the population professes belief in the supernatural; a world in which the international body formed many years ago with the express purpose of preventing wars has been subverted towards instigating wars of aggression; a world in which the educated elite have constructed a creationist mythoreligious worldview of which they confess is highly unnatural to the point of being preposterous; 15 in a world where individuals are still, in this twenty-first century, persecuted and jailed for the beliefs, opinions and truths they express; ... one’s intellectual spirit finds in the physics of DSSU theory the rational and unifying rules so woefully absent in the world of human affairs