Astronomy: The Science of the Heavenly Bodies Part 18

The four moons, or satellites, which a small telescope reveals, are exceedingly interesting on many accounts. They were the first heavenly bodies seen by the aid of the telescope, Galileo having discovered them in 1610. They travel round Jupiter much the same as the moon does round the earth, but faster, the innermost moon about four times per week, the second moon about twice a week, the third or largest moon (larger than the planet Mercury) once a week, and the outermost in about sixteen days. The innermost is about 260,000 miles from Jupiter, and the outermost more than a million miles. From their nearness to the huge and excessively hot globe of Jupiter, some astronomers, Proctor especially, have inclined to the view that these little bodies may be inhabited.

Jupiter has other moons; a very small one, close to the planet, which goes round in less than twelve hours, discovered by Barnard in 1892.

Four others are known, very small and faint and remote from the planet, which travel slowly round it in orbits of great magnitude. The ninth, or outermost, is at a distance of fifteen and one-half million miles from Jupiter, and requires nearly three years in going round the planet. It was discovered by Nicholson at the Lick Observatory in 1914. The eighth was discovered by Melotte at Greenwich in 1908, and is peculiar in the great angle of 28 degrees, at which its...o...b..t is inclined to the equator of Jupiter. The sixth and seventh satellites revolve round Jupiter inside the eighth satellite, but outside the orbit of IV; and they were discovered by photography at the Lick Observatory in 1905 by Perrine, now director of the Argentine National Observatory at Cordoba.

The ever-changing positions of the Medicean moons, as Galileo called the four satellites that he discovered--their pa.s.sing into the shadow in eclipse, their transit in front of the disk, and their occultation behind it--form a succession of phenomena which the telescopist always views with delight. The times when all these events take place are predicted in the "Nautical Almanac," many thousand of them each year, and the predictions cover two or three years in advance.

Jupiter, as the naked eye sees him high up in the midnight sky, is the brightest of all the planets except Venus; indeed, he is five times brighter than Sirius, the brightest of all the fixed stars. His stately motion among the stars will usually be visible by close observation from day to day, and his distance from the earth, at times when he is best seen, is usually about 400 million miles. Jupiter travels all the way round the sun in twelve years; his motion in orbit is about eight miles a second.

The eclipses of Jupiter's moons, caused by pa.s.sing into the shadow of the planet, would take place at almost perfectly regular intervals, if our distance from Jupiter were invariable. But it was early found out that while the earth is approaching Jupiter the eclipses take place earlier and earlier, but later and later when the earth is moving away.

The acceleration of the earliest eclipse added to the r.e.t.a.r.dation of the latest makes 1,000 seconds, which is the time that light takes in crossing a diameter of the earth's...o...b..t round the sun. Now the velocity of light is well known to be 186,300 miles per second, so we calculate at once and very simply that the sun's distance from the earth, which is half the diameter of the orbit, equals 500 times 186,300, or 93,000,000 miles.

CHAPTER x.x.xVII

THE RINGED PLANET

Saturn is the most remote of all the planets that the ancient peoples knew anything about. These anciently known planets are sometimes called the lucid or naked-eye planets--five in number: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Saturn shines as a first-magnitude star, with a steady straw-colored light, and is at a distance of about 800 million miles from the earth when best seen. Saturn travels completely round the sun in a little short of thirty years, and the telescope, when turned to Saturn, reveals a unique and astonishing object; a vast globe somewhat similar to Jupiter, but surrounded by a system of rings wholly unlike anything else in the universe, as far as at present known; the whole encircled by a family of ten moons or satellites. The Saturnian system, therefore, is regarded by many as the most wonderful and most interesting of all the objects that the telescope reveals.

At first the flattening of the disk of Saturn is not easily made out, but every fifteen years (as 1921 and 1936) the earth comes into a position where we look directly at the thin edge of the rings, causing them to completely disappear. Then the remarkable flattening of the poles of Saturn is strikingly visible, amounting to as much as one-tenth of the entire diameter. The atmospheric belt system is also best seen at these times.

But the rings of Saturn are easily the most fascinating features of the system. They can never be seen as if we were directly above or beneath the planet so they never appear circular, as they really are in s.p.a.ce, but always oval or elliptical in shape. The minor axis or greatest breadth is about one-half the major axis or length. The latter is the outer ring's actual diameter, and it amounts to 170,000 miles, or two and one-half times the diameter of Saturn's globe.

There are in fact no less than four rings; an outer ring, sometimes seen to be divided near its middle; an inner, broader and brighter ring; and an innermost dusky, or c.r.a.pe ring, as it is often called. This comes within about 10,000 miles of the planet itself. After the form and size of the rings were well made out, their thickness, or rather lack of thickness, was a great puzzle.

If a model about a foot in diameter were cut out of tissue paper, the relative proportion of size and thickness would be about right. In s.p.a.ce the thickness is very nearly 100 miles, so that, when we look at the ring system edge-on, it becomes all but invisible except in very large telescopes. Clearly a ring so thin cannot be a continuous solid object and recent observations have proved beyond a doubt that Saturn's rings are made up of millions of separate particles moving round the planet, each as if it were an individual satellite.

Ever since 1857 the true theory of the const.i.tution of the Saturnian ring has been recognized on theoretic grounds, because Clerke-Maxwell founded the dynamical demonstration that the rings could be neither fluid nor solid, so that they must be made up of a vast mult.i.tude of particles traveling round the planet independently. But the physical demonstration that absolutely verified this conclusion did not come until 1895, when, as we have said in a preceding chapter, Keeler, by radial velocity measures on different regions of the ring by means of the spectroscope, proved that the inner parts of the ring travel more swiftly round the planet than the outer regions do. And he further showed that the rates of revolution in different parts of the ring exactly correspond to the periods of revolution which satellites of Saturn would have, if at the same distance from the center of the planet. The innermost particles of the dusky ring, for example, travel round Saturn in about five hours, while the outermost particles of the outer bright ring take 137 hours to make their revolution. For many years it was thought that the Saturnian ring system was a new satellite in process of formation, but this view is no longer entertained; and the system is regarded as a permanent feature of the planet, although astronomers are not in entire agreement as to the evolutionary process by which it came into existence--whether by some cosmic cataclysm, or by gradual development throughout indefinite aeons, as the rest of the solar system is thought to have come to its present state of existence.

Possibly the planetesimal hypothesis of Chamberlin and Moulton affords the true explanation, as the result of a rupture due to excessive tidal strain.

CHAPTER x.x.xVIII

THE FARTHEST PLANETS

On the 13th of March, 1781, between 10 and 11 P. M., as Sir William Herschel was sweeping the constellation Gemini with one of his great reflecting telescopes, one star among all that pa.s.sed through the field of view attracted his attention. Removing the eyepiece and applying another with a higher magnifying power, he found that, unlike all the other stars, this one had a small disk and was not a mere point of light, as all the fixed stars seem to be.

A few nights' observation showed that the stranger was moving among the stars, so he thought it must be a comet; but a week's observation following showed that he had discovered a new member of the planetary system, far out beyond Saturn, which from time immemorial had been a.s.sumed to be the outermost planet of all. This, then, was the first real discovery of a planet, as the finding of the satellites of Jupiter had been the first of all astronomical discoveries. Herschel's discovery occasioned great excitement, and he named the new planet Georgium Sidus or the Georgian, after his King. The King created him a knight and gave him a pension, besides providing the means for building a huge telescope, 40 feet long, with which he subsequently made many other astronomical discoveries. The planet that Herschel discovered is now called Ura.n.u.s.

Ura.n.u.s is an object not wholly impossible to see with the naked eye, if the sky background is clear and black, and one knows exactly where to look for it. Its brightness is about that of a sixth magnitude star or a little fainter. Its average distance from the sun is about 1,800 million miles and it takes eighty-four years to complete its journey round the sun, traveling only a little more than four miles a second. When we examine Ura.n.u.s closely with a large telescope, we find a small disk slightly greenish in tint, very slightly flattened, and at times faint bands or belts are apparently seen. Ura.n.u.s is about 30,000 miles in diameter, and is probably surrounded by a dense atmosphere. Its rotation time is 10 h. 50 m.

Ura.n.u.s is attended by four moons or satellites, named Ariel, Umbriel, t.i.tania, and Oberon, the last being the most remote from the planet.

This system of satellites has a remarkable peculiarity: the plane of the orbits in which they travel round Ura.n.u.s is inclined about 80 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic, so that the satellites travel backward, or in a retrograde direction; or we might regard their motion as forward, or direct, if we considered the planes of their orbits inclined at 100 degrees.

For many years after the discovery of Ura.n.u.s it was thought that all the great bodies of the solar system had surely been found. Least of all was any planet suspected beyond Ura.n.u.s until the mathematical tables of the motion of Ura.n.u.s, although built up and revised with the greatest care and thoroughness, began to show that some outside influence was disturbing it in accordance with Newton's law of gravitation. The attraction of a still more distant planet would account for the disturbance, and since no such planet was visible anywhere a mathematical search for it was begun.

NEPTUNE

Wholly independently of each other, two young astronomers, Adams of England and Le Verrier of France, undertook to solve the unique problem of finding out the position in the sky where a planet might be found that would exactly account for the irregular motion of Ura.n.u.s. Both reached practically identical results. Adams was first in point of time, and his announcement led to the earliest observation, without recognition of the new planet (July 30, 1846), although it was Le Verrier's work that led directly to the new planet's being first seen and recognized as such (September 23, 1846). Figuring backward, it was found that the planet had been accidentally observed in Paris in 1795, but its planetary character had been overlooked.

Neptune is the name finally a.s.signed to this historical planet. It is thirty times farther from the sun than the earth, or 2,800 million miles; its velocity in orbit is a little over three miles per second, and it consumes 164 years in going once completely round the sun. So faint is it that a telescope of large size is necessary to show it plainly. The brightness equals that of a star of the eighth magnitude, and with a telescope of sufficient magnifying power, the tiny disk can be seen and measured. The planet is about 30,000 miles in diameter, and is not known to possess more than one moon or satellite. If there are others, they are probably too faint to be seen by any telescope at present in existence.

CHAPTER x.x.xIX

THE TRANS-NEPTUNIAN PLANET

Investigation of the question of a possible trans-Neptunian planet was undertaken by the writer in 1877. As Neptune requires 164 years to travel completely round the sun, and the period during which it has been carefully observed embraces only half that interval, clearly its...o...b..t cannot be regarded as very well known. Any possible deviations from the mathematical orbit could not therefore be traced to the action of a possible unknown planet outside. But the case was different with Ura.n.u.s, which showed very slight disturbances, and these were a.s.sumed to be due to a possible planet exterior to both Ura.n.u.s and Neptune. As a position for this body in the heavens was indicated by the writer's investigation, that region of the sky was searched by him with great care in 1877-1878 with the twenty-six-inch telescope at Washington; and photographs of the same region were afterward taken by others, though only with negative results.

In 1880, Forbes of Edinburgh published his investigation of the problem from an entirely independent angle. Families of comets have long been recognized whose aphelion distances correspond so nearly with the distances of the planets that these comet families are now recognized as having been created by the several planets, which have reduced the high original velocities possessed by the comets on first entering the solar system.

Their orbits have ever since been ellipses with their aphelia in groups corresponding to the distances of the planets concerned. Jupiter has a large group of such comets, also Saturn. Ura.n.u.s and Neptune likewise have their families of comets, and Forbes found two groups with average distances far outside of Neptune; from which he drew the inference that there are two trans-Neptunian planets. The position he a.s.signed to the inner one agreed fairly well with the writer's planet as indicated by unexplained deviations of Ura.n.u.s.

The theoretical problem of a trans-Neptunian planet has since been taken up by Gaillot and Lau of Paris, the late Percival Lowell, and W. H.

Pickering of Harvard. The photographic method of search will, it is expected, ultimately lead to its discovery. On account of the probable faintness of the planet, at least the twelfth or thirteenth magnitude, Metcalf's method of search is well adapted to this practical problem.

When near its opposition the motion of Neptune retrograding among the stars amounts to five seconds of arc in an hour; while the trans-Neptunian planet would move but three seconds. By shifting the plate this amount hourly during exposure, the suspected object would readily be detected on the photographic plate as a minute and nearly circular disk, all the adjacent stars being represented by short trails.

Interest in a possible planet or planets outside the orbit of Neptune is likely to increase rather than diminish. To the ancients seven was the perfect number, there were seven heavenly bodies already known, so there could be no use whatever in looking for an eighth. The discovery of Ura.n.u.s in 1781 proved the futility of such logic, and Neptune followed in 1846 with further demonstration, if need be. The cosmogony of the present day sets no outer limit to the solar system, and some astronomers advocate the existence of many trans-Neptunian planets.

CHAPTER XL

COMETS--THE HAIRY STARS

Comets--hairy stars, as the origin of the name would indicate--are the freaks of the heavens. Of great variety in shape, some with heads and some without, some with tails and some without, moving very slowly at one time and with exceedingly high velocity at another, in orbits at all possible angles of inclination to the general plane of the planetary paths round the sun, their antics and irregularities were the wonder and terror of the ancient world, and they are keenly dreaded by superst.i.tious people even to the present day.

Down through the Middle Ages the advent of a comet was regarded as:

Threatening the world with famine, plague and war; To princes, death; to kingdoms, many curses; To all estates, inevitable losses; To herdsmen, rot; to plowmen, hapless seasons; To sailors, storms; to cities, civil treasons.

Comets appeared to be marvelous objects, as well as sinister, chiefly because they bid apparent defiance to all law. Kepler had shown that the moon and the planets travel in regular paths--slightly elliptical to be sure, but nevertheless unvarying. None of the comets were known to follow regular paths till the time of Halley late in the seventeenth century, when, as we have before told, a fine comet made its appearance, and Halley calculated its...o...b..t with much precision.

Comparing this with the orbits of comets that had previously been seen, he found its path about the sun practically identical with that of at least two comets previously observed in 1531 and 1607.

So Halley ventured to think all these comets were one and the same body, and that it traveled round the sun in a long ellipse in a period of about seventy-five or seventy-six years. We have seen how his prediction of its return in 1758 was verified in every particular. On the comet's return in 1910, Crowell and Crommelin of Greenwich made a thorough mathematical investigation of the orbit, indicating that the year 1986 will witness its next return to the sun.

There is a cla.s.s of astronomers known as comet-hunters, and they pa.s.s hours upon hours of clear, sparkling, moonless nights in search for comets. They are equipped with a peculiar sort of telescope called a comet-seeker, which has an object gla.s.s usually about four or five inches in diameter, and a relatively short length of focus, so that a larger field of view may be included. Regions near the poles of the heavens are perhaps the most fruitful fields for search, and thence toward the sun till its light renders the sky too bright for the finding of such a faint object as a new comet usually is at the time of discovery. Generally when first seen it resembles a small circular patch of faint luminous cloud.