Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1853-10-21
Discovery of New Planets.

alton, held at Hull, England President Hop
kins, III the course of his address, remarked:
Stellar astronomy continues to manifest q
vigor and activity worthy of the lofty interest
which attaches to it. Bessel had made sur
vey Of all stars, to those of the ninth magnitude
inclusive, i'll Il zone lying between 40 of north
and l5o of south declination. Argeander has
extended this zone from 500 of north to 80 of
south decnation. II comprises more than
100000 stars. Notices have been brought be-
fore, us, from time to time, of the nebulse OBJ
served through Lord Ross's telescope This
noble instrument, SO unrivalled for observations
of this kind, continues to be applied to the
same purpose, and to add yearly to our know
ledge of the remotest regions of space into
which the eye of man has been able to pen
citrate. Almost every new observation appears
to confrm the fact of that curious tendency to
a spiral arrangement in these nebulous masses
of which mention has so frequently been made
Between the 23d of June, 1852, and 9th of
May, 1853, nine new planets were discovered,
of which seven were found since the last meet
ing of the association. OF these nine planets
our countryman, Mr.. Hind, has discovered four
The number now known, exclusive of the large
planets, but including the four old asteroids,
amounts to twenty six; nor have we any rea-
son to suppose that we have yet appropriated
to the whole number of these minor planetary
bodies
The recent discovery, however, of so many
planets, shows how imperfectly we may yet be
acquainted with the planetary part of the sys-
TEN; and the continual discovery of new com
cts seems to indicate that, in this department,
still more remains to he done These curious
bodies, too, may possibly have to reveal to MS
facts more interesting than any which the plan
cts may still have in reserve for us. The expe-
rience of these latter bodies, if may SO speak,
is more limited, and their testimony conse-
quently more restricted. But they have al
ready told us a noble tale In moving, as they
do, in exact obedience to the law Of graviation,
and thus establishing that law, they have af.
frmed the highest generalization in physical
science which it has been accorded to the hui
man mind to conceive.
The sun cannot continue for an indefinite
time to emit the same quantity of heat as at
present, unless his thermal energy be renovated
from some eytraneous source. The same con-
clusion may be applied to all other bodies in
the universe which, like our sun, may be CEN
tres of intense heat; and hence, recognising no
adequate internal supplies of heat to renovate
those existing centres of heat, Professor Thorn
son concludes that the dispersion of heat, and
consequently of physical energy, from the sun
and stars into surrounding space, without any
recognizable means of RECOMMENDATION, is the
existing order Of nature. In such case the
heat Of the sun must ultimately be diminished,
and the physical condition of the earth there
fore altered, in degree altogether inconsistent
with the theory of non-progression. / would
at present merely state that my own convictions
entirely coincide with those of Professor Thorn
son. If we are to found our theories upon our
knowledge, and not upon our ignorance of ply
steal causes and phenomena, ! can only recog
Mise in the existing state of things passing
phase of the material universe. 1t may be cal
culated in all, and is demonstrably so in some
respects, to endure under the action of known
causes for an inconcevabe period Of time, but
it has not, think, received the impress of eter-
nal duration, in characters which man is able
to decipher. The external temperature and
physical conditions Of our own globe may not,
and probably cannot, have changed in any con-
siderable degree since the first introduction Of
organic beings on its surface, but can still
only recognize, in its physical state during the
intervening period, a state of actual, though Of
exceedingly slow progression, from an antece
dent to some ultimate state, on the nature of
which our limited powers will not enable us to
offer even a conjecture founded on physical re-
search,