The Story of the Heavens Part 15

We have seen that there are very grave doubts as to the existence of water on Mars. No doubt we have frequently spoken of the dark markings as "oceans" and of the bright parts as "continents." That this language was just has been the opinion of astronomers for a very long time. A few years ago Mr. Schaeberle, of the Lick Observatory, came to the very opposite conclusion. He contended that the dark parts were the continents and the bright ones were the oceans of water, or some other fluid. He pointed to the irregular shading of the dark parts, which does not suggest the idea of light reflected from a spherical surface of water, especially as the contrasts between light and shade are strongest about the middle of the disc.

It is also to be noticed that the dark regions are not infrequently traversed by still darker streaks, which can be traced for hundreds of miles almost in straight lines, while the so-called ca.n.a.ls in the bright parts often seem to be continuations of these same lines. Mr. Schaeberle therefore suggests that the ca.n.a.ls may be chains of mountains stretching over sea and land! The late Professor Phillips and Mr. H.D. Taylor have pointed out that if there were lakes or seas in the tropical regions of Mars we should frequently see the sun directly reflected from them, thus producing a bright, star-like point which could not escape observation.

Even moderately disturbed water would make its presence known in this manner, and yet nothing of the kind has ever been recorded.

On the question as to the possibility of life on Mars a few words may be added. If we could be certain of the existence of water on Mars, then one of the fundamental conditions would be fulfilled; and even though the atmosphere on Mars had but few points of resemblance either in composition or in density to the atmosphere of the earth, life might still be possible. Even if we could suppose that a man would find suitable nutriment for his body and suitable air for his respiration, it seems very doubtful whether he would be able to live. Owing to the small size of Mars and the smallness of its ma.s.s in comparison with the earth, the intensity of the gravitation on the neighbouring planet would be different from the attraction on the surface of the earth. We have already alluded to the small gravitation on the moon, and in a lesser degree the same remarks will apply to Mars. A body which weighs on the earth two pounds would on the surface of Mars weigh rather less than one pound. Nearly the same exertion which will raise a 56-lb. weight on the earth would lift two similar weights on Mars.

The earth is attended by one moon. Jupiter is attended by four conspicuous moons. Mars is a planet revolving between the orbits of the earth and of Jupiter. It is a body of the same general type as the earth and Jupiter. It is ruled by the same sun, and all three planets form part of the same system; but as the earth has one moon and Jupiter four moons, why should not Mars also have a moon? No doubt Mars is a small body, less even than the earth, and much less than Jupiter. We could not expect Mars to have large moons, but why should it be unlike its two neighbours, and not have any moon at all? So reasoned astronomers, but until modern times no satellite of Mars could be found. For centuries the planet has been diligently examined with this special object, and as failure after failure came to be recorded, the conclusion seemed almost to be justified that the chain of a.n.a.logical reasoning had broken down.

The moonless Mars was thought to be an exception to the rule that all the great planets outside Venus were dignified by an attendant retinue of satellites. It seemed almost hopeless to begin again a research which had often been tried, and had invariably led to disappointment; yet, fortunately, the present generation has witnessed still one more attack, conducted with perfect equipment and with consummate skill This attempt has obtained the success it so well merited, and the result has been the memorable detection of two satellites of Mars.

This discovery was made by Professor Asaph Hall, the distinguished astronomer at the observatory of Washington. Mr. Hall was provided with an instrument of colossal proportions and of exquisite workmanship, known as the great Washington refractor. It is the product of the celebrated workshop of Messrs. Alvan Clark and Sons, from which so many large telescopes have proceeded, and in its n.o.ble proportions far surpa.s.sed any other telescope ever devoted to the same research. The object-gla.s.s measures twenty-six inches in diameter, and is hardly less remarkable for the perfection of its definition than for its size. But even the skill of Mr. Hall, and the s.p.a.ce-penetrating power of his telescope, would not have been able on ordinary occasions to discover the satellites of Mars. Advantage was accordingly taken of that memorable opposition of Mars in 1877, when, as we have already described, the planet came unusually near the earth.

Had Mars been attended by a moon one-hundredth part of the bulk of our moon it must long ago have been discovered. Mr. Hall, therefore, knew that if there were any satellites they must be extremely small bodies, and he braced himself for a severe and diligent search. The circ.u.mstances were all favourable. Not only was Mars as near as it well could be to the earth; not only was the great telescope at Washington the most powerful refractor then in existence; but the situation of Washington is such that Mars was seen from the observatory at a high elevation. It was while the British a.s.sociation were meeting at Plymouth, in 1877, that a telegram flashed across the Atlantic.

Brilliant success had rewarded Mr. Hall's efforts. He had hoped to discover one satellite. The discovery of even one would have made the whole scientific world ring; but fortune smiled on Mr. Hall. He discovered first one satellite, and then he discovered a second; and, in connection with these satellites, he further discovered a unique fact in the solar system.

Deimos, the outer of the satellites, revolves around the planet in the period of 30 hours, 17 mins., 54 secs.; it is the inner satellite, Phobos, which has commanded the more special attention of every astronomer in the world. Mars turns round on his axis in a Martial day, which is very nearly the same length as our day of twenty-four hours.

The inner satellite of Mars moves round in 7 hours, 39 mins., 14 secs.

Phobos, in fact, revolves three times round Mars in the same time that Mars can turn round once. This circ.u.mstance is unparalleled in the solar system; indeed, as far as we know, it is unparalleled in the universe.

In the case of our own planet, the earth rotates twenty-seven times for one revolution of the moon. To some extent the same may be said of Jupiter and of Saturn; while in the great system of the sun himself and the planets, the sun rotates on his axis several times for each revolution of even the most rapidly moving of the planets. There is no other known case where the satellite revolves around the primary more quickly than the primary rotates on its axis. The anomalous movement of the satellite of Mars has, however, been accounted for. In a subsequent chapter we shall again allude to this, as it is connected with an important department of modern astronomy.

The satellites are so small that we are unable to measure their diameters directly, but from observations of their brightness it is evident that their diameters cannot exceed twenty or thirty miles, and may be even smaller. Owing to their rapid motion the two satellites must present some remarkable peculiarities to an observer on Mars. Phobos rises in the west, pa.s.ses across the heavens, and sets in the east after about five and a half hours, while Deimos rises in the east and remains more than two days above the horizon.

As the satellites revolve in paths vertically above the equator of their primary, the one less than 4,000 miles and the other only some 14,500 miles above the surface, it follows that they can never be visible from the poles of Mars; indeed, to see Phobos, the observer's planetary lat.i.tude must not be above 68-3/4. If it were so, the satellite would be hidden by the body of Mars, just as we, in the British Islands, would be unable to see an object revolving round the earth a few hundred miles above the equator.

Before pa.s.sing from the attractive subject of the satellites, we may just mention two points of a literary character. Mr. Hall consulted his cla.s.sical friends as to the designation to be conferred on the two satellites. Homer was referred to, and a pa.s.sage in the "Iliad"

suggested the names of Deimos and Phobos. These personages were the attendants of Mars, and the lines in which they occur have been thus construed by my friend Professor Tyrrell:--

"Mars spake, and called Dismay and Rout To yoke his steeds, and he did on his harness sheen."

A curious circ.u.mstance with respect to the satellites of Mars will be familiar to those who are acquainted with "Gulliver's Travels." The astronomers on board the flying Island of Laputa had, according to Gulliver, keen vision and good telescopes. The traveller says that they had found two satellites to Mars, one of which revolved around him in ten hours, and the other in twenty-one and a half. The author has thus not only made a correct guess about the number of the satellites, but he actually stated the periodic time with considerable accuracy! We do not know what can have suggested the latter guess. A few years ago any astronomer reading the voyage to Laputa would have said this was absurd.

There might be two satellites to Mars, no doubt; but to say that one of them revolves in ten hours would be to a.s.sert what no one could believe.

Yet the truth has been even stranger than the fiction.

And now we must bring to a close our account of this beautiful and interesting planet. There are many additional features over which we are tempted to linger, but so many other bodies claim our attention in the solar system, so many other bodies which exceed Mars in size and intrinsic importance, that we are obliged to desist. Our next step will not, however, at once conduct us to the giant planets. We find outside Mars a host of objects, small indeed, but of much interest; and with these we shall find abundant occupation for the following chapter.

CHAPTER XI.

THE MINOR PLANETS.

The Lesser Members of our System--Bode's Law--The Vacant Region in the Planetary System--The Research--The Discovery of Piazzi--Was the small Body a Planet?--The Planet becomes Invisible--Gauss undertakes the Search by Mathematics--The Planet Recovered--Further Discoveries--Number of Minor Planets now known--The Region to be Searched--The Construction of the Chart for the Search for Small Planets--How a Minor Planet is Discovered--Physical Nature of the Minor Planets--Small Gravitation on the Minor Planets--The Berlin Computations--How the Minor Planets tell us the Distance of the Sun--Accuracy of the Observations--How they may be Multiplied--Victoria and Sappho--The most Perfect Method.

In our chapters on the Sun and Moon, on the Earth and Venus, and on Mercury and Mars, we have been discussing the features and the movements of globes of vast dimensions. The least of all these bodies is the moon, but even that globe is 2,000 miles from one side to the other. In approaching the subject of the minor planets we must be prepared to find objects of dimensions quite inconsiderable in comparison with the great spheres of our system. No doubt these minor planets are all of them some few miles, and some of them a great many miles, in diameter. Were they close to the earth they would be conspicuous, and even splendid, objects; but as they are so distant they do not, even in our greatest telescopes, become very remarkable, while to the unaided eye they are almost all invisible.

In the diagram (p. 234) of the orbits of the various planets, it is shown that a wide s.p.a.ce exists between the orbit of Mars and that of Jupiter. It was often surmised that this ample region must be tenanted by some other planet. The presumption became much stronger when a remarkable law was discovered which exhibited, with considerable accuracy, the relative distances of the great planets of our system.

Take the series of numbers, 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 96, whereof each number (except the second) is double of the number which precedes it. If we now add four to each, we have the series 4, 7, 10, 16, 28, 52, 100. With the exception of the fifth of these numbers (28), they are all sensibly proportional to the distances of the various planets from the sun. In fact, the distances are as follows:--Mercury, 39; Venus, 72; Earth, 10; Mars, 152; Jupiter, 529; Saturn, 954. Although we have no physical reason to offer why this law--generally known as Bode's--should be true, yet the fact that it is so nearly true in the case of all the known planets tempts us to ask whether there may not also be a planet revolving around the sun at the distance represented by 28.

So strongly was this felt at the end of the eighteenth century that some energetic astronomers decided to make a united effort to search for the unknown planet. It seemed certain that the planet could not be a large one, as otherwise it must have been found long ago. If it should exist, then means were required for discriminating between the planet and the hosts of stars strewn along its path.

The search for the small planet was soon rewarded by a success which has rendered the evening of the first day in the nineteenth century memorable in astronomy. It was in the pure skies of Palermo that the observatory was situated where the memorable discovery of the first known minor planet was made by Piazzi. This laborious and accomplished astronomer had organised an ingenious system of exploring the heavens which was eminently calculated to discriminate a planet among the starry host. On a certain night he would select a series of stars to the number of fifty, more or less, according to circ.u.mstances. With his meridian circle he determined the places of the chosen objects. The following night, or, at all events, as soon as convenient, he re-observed the whole fifty stars with the same instrument and in the same manner, and the whole operation was afterwards repeated on two, or perhaps more, nights. When the observations were compared together he was in possession of some four or more places of each one of the stars on different nights, and the whole series was complete. He was persevering enough to carry on these observations for very many groups, and at length he was rewarded by a success which amply compensated him for all his toil.

It was on the 1st of January, 1801, that Piazzi commenced for the one hundred and fifty-ninth time to observe a new series. Fifty stars this night were viewed in his telescope, and their places were carefully recorded. Of these objects the first twelve were undoubtedly stellar, and so to all appearance was the thirteenth, a star of the eighth magnitude in the constellation of Taurus. There was nothing to distinguish the telescopic appearance of this object from all the others which preceded or followed it. The following night Piazzi, according to his custom, re-observed the whole fifty stars, and he did the same again on the 3rd of January, and once again on the 4th. He then, as usual, brought together the four places he had found for each of the several bodies. When this was done it was at once seen that the thirteenth object on the list was quite a different body from the remainder and from all the other stars which he had ever observed before. The four places of this mysterious object were all different; in other words, it was in movement, and was therefore a planet.

A few days' observation sufficed to show how this little body, afterwards called Ceres, revolved around the sun, and how it circulated in that vacant path intermediate between the path of Mars and the path of Jupiter. Great, indeed, was the interest aroused by this discovery and the influence which it has exercised on the progress of astronomy.

The majestic planets of our system had now to admit a much more humble object to a share of the benefits dispensed by the sun.

After Piazzi had obtained a few further observations, the season for observing this part of the heavens pa.s.sed away, and the new planet of course ceased to be visible. In a few months, no doubt, the same part of the sky would again be above the horizon after dark, and the stars would of course be seen as before. The planet, however, was moving, and would continue to move, and by the time the next season had arrived it would have pa.s.sed off into some distant region, and would be again confounded with the stars which it so closely resembled. How, then, was the planet to be pursued through its period of invisibility and identified when it again came within reach of observation?

This difficulty attracted the attention of astronomers, and they sought for some method by which the place of the planet could be recovered so as to prevent Piazzi's discovery from falling into oblivion. A young German mathematician, whose name was Gauss, opened his distinguished career by a successful attempt to solve this problem. A planet, as we have shown, describes an ellipse around the sun, and the sun lies at a focus of that curve. It can be demonstrated that when three positions of a planet are known, then the ellipse in which the planet moves is completely determined. Piazzi had on each occasion measured the place which it then occupied. This information was available to Gauss, and the problem which he had to solve may be thus stated. Knowing the place of the planet on three nights, it is required, without any further observations, to tell what the place of the planet will be on a special occasion some months in the future. Mathematical calculations, based on the laws of Kepler, will enable this problem to be solved, and Gauss succeeded in solving it. Gauss demonstrated that though the telescope of the astronomer was unable to detect the wanderer during its season of invisibility, yet the pen of the mathematician could follow it with unfailing certainty. When, therefore, the progress of the seasons permitted the observations to be renewed, the search was recommenced.

The telescope was directed to the point which Gauss's calculations indicated, and there was the little Ceres. Ever since its re-discovery, the planet has been so completely bound in the toils of mathematical reasoning that its place every night of the year can be indicated with a fidelity approaching to that attainable in observing the moon or the great planets of our system.

The discovery of one minor planet was quickly followed by similar successes, so that within seven years Pallas, Juno, and Vesta were added to the solar system. The orbits of all these bodies lie in the region between the orbit of Mars and of Jupiter, and for many years it seems to have been thought that our planetary system was now complete. Forty years later systematic research was again commenced. Planet after planet was added to the list; gradually the discoveries became a stream of increasing volume, until in 1897 the total number reached about 430.

Their distribution in the solar system is somewhat as represented in Fig. 55. By the improvement of astronomical telescopes, and by the devotion with which certain astronomers have applied themselves to this interesting research, a special method of observing has been created for the distinct purpose of searching out these little objects.

It is known that the paths in which all the great planets move through the heavens coincide very nearly with the path which the sun appears to follow among the stars, and which is known as the ecliptic. It is natural to a.s.sume that the small planets also move in the same great highway, which leads them through all the signs of the zodiac in succession. Some of the small planets, no doubt, deviate rather widely from the track of the sun, but the great majority are approximately near it. This consideration at once simplifies the search for new planets. A certain zone extending around the heavens is to be examined, but there is in general little advantage in pushing the research into other parts of the sky.

The next step is to construct a map containing all the stars in this region. This is a task of very great labour; the stars visible in the large telescopes are so numerous that many tens of thousands, perhaps we should say hundreds of thousands, are included in the region so narrowly limited. The fact is that many of the minor planets now known are objects of extreme minuteness; they can only be seen with very powerful telescopes, and for their detection it is necessary to use charts on which even the faintest stars have been depicted. Many astronomers have concurred in the labour of producing these charts; among them may be mentioned Palisa, of Vienna, who by means of his charts has found eighty-three minor planets, and the late Professor Peters, of Clinton, New York, who in a similar way found forty-nine of these bodies.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 55.--The Zone of Minor Planets between Mars and Jupiter.]

The astronomer about to seek for a new planet directs his telescope towards that part of the sun's path which is on the meridian at midnight; there, if anywhere, lies the chance of success, because that is the region in which such a body is nearer to the earth than at any other part of its course. He steadfastly compares his chart with the heavens, and usually finds the stars in the heavens and the stars in the chart to correspond; but sometimes it will happen that a point in the heavens is missing from the chart. His attention is at once arrested; he follows the object with care, and if it moves it is a planet. Still he cannot be sure that he has really made a discovery; he has found a planet, no doubt, but it may be one of the large number already known.

To clear up this point he must undertake a further, and sometimes a very laborious, enquiry; he must search the Berlin Year-Book and other ephemerides of such planets and see whether it is possible for one of them to have been in the position on the night in question. If he can ascertain that no previously discovered body could have been there, he is then ent.i.tled to announce to his brother astronomers the discovery of a new member of the solar system. It seems certain that all the more important of the minor planets have been long since discovered. The recent additions to the list are generally extremely minute objects, beyond the powers of small telescopes.

Since 1891 the method of searching for minor planets which we have just described has been almost abandoned in favour of a process greatly superior. It has been found feasible to employ photography for making charts of the heavens. A photographic plate is exposed in the telescope to a certain region of the sky sufficiently long to enable very faint telescopic stars to imprint their images. Care has to be taken that the clock which moves the camera shall keep pace most accurately with the rotation of the earth, so that fixed stars appear on the plate as sharp points. If, on developing the plate, a star is found to have left a trail, it is evident that this star must during the time of exposure (generally some hours) have had an independent motion of its own; in other words, it must be a planet. For greater security a second picture is generally taken of the same region after a short interval. If the place occupied by the trail on the first plate is now vacant, while on the second plate a new trail appears in a line with the first one, there remains no possible doubt that we have genuine indications of a planet, and that we have not been led astray by some impurity on the plate or by a few minute stars which happened to lie very closely together. Wolf, of Heidelberg, and following in his footsteps Charlois, of Nice, have in this manner discovered a great number of new minor planets, while they have also recovered a good many of those which had been lost sight of owing to an insufficiency of observations.

On the 13th of August, 1898, Herr G. Witt, of the observatory of Urania in Berlin, discovered a new asteroid by the photographic method. This object was at first regarded merely as forming an addition of no special importance to the 432 asteroids whose discovery had preceded it. It received, as usual, a provisional designation in accordance with a simple alphabetical device. This temporary label affixed to Witt's asteroid was "D Q." But the formal naming of the asteroid has now superseded this label. Herr Witt has given to his asteroid the name of "Eros." This has been duly accepted by astronomers, and thus for all time the planet is to be known.

The feature which makes the discovery of Eros one of the most remarkable incidents in recent astronomy is that on those rare occasions when this asteroid comes nearest to the earth it is closer to the earth than the planet Mars can ever be. Closer than the planet Venus can ever be.

Closer than any other known asteroid can ever be. Thus we a.s.sign to Eros the exceptional position of being our nearest planetary neighbour in the whole host of heaven. Under certain circ.u.mstances it will have a distance from the earth not exceeding one-seventh of the mean distance of the sun.

Of the physical composition of the asteroids and of the character of their surfaces we are entirely ignorant. It may be, for anything we can tell, that these planets are globes like our earth in miniature, diversified by continents and by oceans. If there be life on such bodies, which are often only a few miles in diameter, that life must be something totally different from anything with which we are familiar.

Setting aside every other difficulty arising from the possible absence of water and from the great improbability of finding there an atmosphere of a density and a composition suitable for respiration, gravitation itself would prohibit organic beings adapted for this earth from residing on a minor planet.

Let us attempt to ill.u.s.trate this point, and suppose that we take the case of a minor planet eight miles in diameter, or, in round numbers, one-thousandth part of the diameter of the earth. If we further suppose that the materials of the planet are of the same nature as the substances in the earth, it is easy to prove that the gravity on the surface of the planet will be only one-thousandth part of the gravity of the earth. It follows that the weight of an object on the earth would be reduced to the thousandth part if that object were transferred to the planet. This would not be disclosed by an ordinary weighing scales, where the weights are to be placed in one pan and the body to be weighed in the other. Tested in this way, a body would, of course, weigh precisely the same anywhere; for if the gravitation of the body is altered, so is also in equal proportion the gravitation of the counterpoising weights. But, weighed with a spring balance, the change would be at once evident, and the effort with which a weight could be raised would be reduced to one-thousandth part. A load of one thousand pounds could be lifted from the surface of the planet by the same effort which would lift one pound on the earth; the effects which this would produce are very remarkable.

In our description of the moon it was mentioned (p. 103) that we can calculate the velocity with which it would be necessary to discharge a projectile so that it would never again fall back on the globe from which it was expelled. We applied this reasoning to explain why the moon has apparently altogether lost any atmosphere it might have once possessed.

If we a.s.sume for the sake of ill.u.s.tration that the densities of all planets are identical, then the law which expresses the critical velocity for each planet can be readily stated. It is, in fact, simply proportional to the diameter of the globe in question. Thus, for a minor planet whose diameter was one-thousandth part of that of the earth, or about eight miles, the critical velocity would be the thousandth part of six miles a second--that is, about thirty feet per second. This is a low velocity compared with ordinary standards. A child easily tosses a ball up fifteen or sixteen feet high, yet to carry it up this height it must be projected with a velocity of thirty feet per second. A child, standing upon a planet eight miles in diameter, throws his ball vertically upwards; up and up the ball will soar to an amazing elevation. If the original velocity were less than thirty feet per second, the ball would at length cease to move, would begin to turn, and fall with a gradually accelerating pace, until at length it regained the surface with a speed equal to that with which it had been projected. If the original velocity had been as much as, or more than, thirty feet per second, then the ball would soar up and up never to return. In a future chapter it will be necessary to refer again to this subject.

A few of the minor planets appear in powerful telescopes as discs with appreciable dimensions, and they have even been measured with the micrometer. In this way Professor Barnard, late of the Lick Observatory, determined the following values for the diameters of the four first discovered minor planets:--

Ceres 485 miles.

Pallas 304 miles.

Juno 118 miles.

Vesta 243 miles.