Mercury makes its rounds around the Sun a little faster than Newton predicted. This anomaly has been known since Newton’s time. But it wasn’t before Einstein came along with his curved space-time that conventional science settled the matter for themselves.

Alternative theories

However, there are no lack of alternative explanations. Gravity may simply be directional, or there might be a blob of dense matter hidden below the Sun’s photosphere.

But for the purpose of this post we’ll take the position that time goes a little faster on Mercury than it does on Earth. Everything goes a little faster on Mercury, and that includes its orbital speed.

Gravity’s influence on time

To understand why time might go faster on Mercury than on Earth, we have to first entertain the idea that gravity affects the aether in such a way that regions close to the Sun are richer in photons and poorer in neutrinos than what is the case farther away.

The size of electrons and protons depend in turn on the abundance of neutrinos in the aether.

With fewer neutrinos close to the Sun than farther away, electrons and protons end up correspondingly smaller close to the Sun than farther away.

The smaller size of electrons and protons translates into smaller clocks, and therefore faster time.

Photon crossing an electron on Earth, compared to crossing it on Mercury

It takes a photon more time to cross an electron on Earth than it takes a photon to cross an electron on Mercury. As a consequence, energy distribution takes more time on Earth than on Mercury. All processes are therefore slower on Earth than on Mercury, which by definition means that time itself is slower on Earth than Mercury.

Impact of gravity on energy

An interesting consequence of this is that energy must be smaller on Mercury than Earth, because energy too is related to the size of subatomic particles.

Let us imagine a carefully designed explosive with enough energy to send a 1 kilogram projectile through space at a speed of 1 kilometer per second.

We test this on Earth, and we see that it is spot on. There is never a deviation. It is a perfect explosive.

We take this explosive to Mercury and try it out there. What happens?

Energy is stored as size in subatomic particles. These particles are reduced in size due the difference in composition of the aether. When the explosive fires, there is less energy to draw on.

We may from this expect the projectile to come out slower than was the case on Earth.

However, the size of subatomic particles in the projectile has also become smaller. This means that the projectile has less inertia.

Time, distance, energy and inertia are all related to the size of subatomic particles. Measured on Mercury, the explosive behaves exactly as it did on Earth.

No local changes, only relative ones

It is only when viewed form Earth that we notice that things have changed. An observer on Earth, looking at the experiment on Mercury, using equipment on Earth for all measurements, will notice that time is faster, distances are shorter, inertia is less and energy is less.

However, none of this can be detected on Mercury. The explosive will still send a 1 kilogram projectile through space at a speed of 1 kilometer per second when measured with local instruments.