Recently the discovered experimental corroboration of the essential vacuum (ether medium) contribution in the total balance of the universe masses has been actively discussed in cosmology. Following A.D. Chernin [73], vacuum is dominating in the universe. The vacuum surpasses all "ordinary" forms of the cosmic substance taken together in energy density. According to the mass balance given in the paper, the relative vacuum density is 0.7 ± 0.1 of the total mass equated to the unity. Other forms of the cosmic substance are a dark substance, a luminous substance of stars and galaxies and radiation. The dark substance has a relative density of some 0.3 ± 0.1. The luminous substance of the stars and galaxies occupies about 0.02 ± 0.01. The energy concentrated in radiation (converted to mass) is about (1-30)× 10^-5 of the relative fractions. As follows from the mass balance, the vacuum density exceeds the total density of all the rest types of the cosmic energy. Thus, the vacuum or, put otherwise, the ether medium is rehabilitated in physics as an actual substance.

The known experimental facts set one acknowledge that the ether medium surrounding our planet Earth is virtually immovable in relation to the Earth. A comparatively simple observation convinces us of that. If the ether medium were involved in any noticeable movement in relation to the Earth, then a magnetic field would be detected near the charge that was immovable in relation to our planet, as a result of the ether medium deformation. But the experiments of F.T. Trouton and H.R. Noble with the charged condenser located at the Earth surface at some point and moving with the Earth, showed that the ether medium is motionless in relation to this surface [77]. The experiments of A. Michelson and E. Morley also demonstrated immobility of the ether medium in relation to the planet Earth [70].

On the other hand, the presence of the cosmic vacuum as a mass [see expression (28)] actively participating in the universe mass balance suggests that the planet Earth has "a shell" consisting of a vacuum (ether medium). This shell can extend to the place where the Earth's gravitation force, decreasing with the distance from its centre, becomes comparable with that of the Moon or the Sun. The calculations given in [78] indicate that. Following L.I. Katurina and Yu.A. Fedorin, the calculated summary tidal deceleration of the Earth rotation is 3.5× 10^-3 s per 100 years. Astronomic observations point to the elongation of the twenty-four-hour period by 2× 10^-3 s per 100 years on the average. The 1.5× 10^-3 s per 100 years difference is attributable to the dissipative action of the hidden mass distributed in the Earth's vicinity. The calculations presented showed the validity of the assumption of the hidden mass influence on the deceleration nature of our planet rotation. The ether medium mass, as the ether shell held by the Earth in its vicinity, acts as this hidden mass.

Thus, recognizing the presence of the ether as a substance possessing certain physical properties, we should recognize the presence of the space as a container of the whole universe. The ether uniformly fills all the space known to us. The energy as electromagnetic fields and waves (light and X-ray ones) reflects the disturbed state of the ether. A condensed physical matter (for instance, in the form of atoms, molecules, physical bodies etc.) is in the ether and is permeable for it. In this universe pattern we obtain a unity of nested categories.

The space covers all known limits of the matter existence. It possesses geometric properties. The presence of the ether filling the space provides a basis for the presence of certain physical properties, including electromagnetic ones, in the space and explains a possibility of existence of electric and magnetic fields. As mentioned above, these fields are the forms of disturbance of the ether medium and bringing it to the nonequilibrium state. To establish an electric or magnetic field in the ether medium, one must expend energy. When removing an electromagnetic field, the ether medium gives back the energy accumulated in it. Another type of the energy transfer into the ether medium is exciting electromagnetic waves in it. The energy propagation in the space as electromagnetic waves with certain, almost exactly known velocity corroborates the presence of the medium whose physical properties are close to the constant. Finally, as shown above, the availability of the ether explains the increase in the mass of a physical body as its velocity approaches that of the light.

Physical bodies (see Sect. 7) introduce distortions in the lattice of unlike charges arrangement in the ether medium. These distortions cause the ether to exert a decreased pressure on the physical body that happened to be in the distorted field (Figs. 12 and 13). For this reason the attraction of one body to another arises. The dynamic processes in the ether medium in the micro- and macrocosm of physical bodies proceed in time.

Thus, let us define space as an object that has purely geometric properties, ether as a medium filling the space with homogenous, uniformly distributed matter and time as a sequence of events occurring with material (localized) physical bodies. Earlier a variety and properties of physical bodies received sufficient attention and, on the whole, no consideration has been given to them in this work.