The paper reviews empirical evidence from several optical experiments on earth showing that it is possible to detect earth??s motion. Four different experiments with different technical means, and from widely separated places in time and space, point towards solar motion in a plane with right ascension 75??, but there is no agreement on the declination, which seems to be large. This evidence contradicts the widely accepted heuristic principle that the motion of earth cannot be detected by terrestrial experiments, and opens the door for a reinstatement of the currently forbidden concept of absolute space ??. A closed finite Newtonian universe has interesting cosmological implications, as compatibility with the variation of speed with distance (without expansion), and the appearance of new acceleration term of the same order of magnitude as the MOND cut-off, thus offering an alternative explanation to the dark matter and MOND hypotheses.
