Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-02-13
Singular Planetary TheOry-A Work of
RecOnstrucIiOn, not Destruction.


A curious theory, not unsupported by
facts, is pTopounded in the last number of the
Revue Contemporaries, regarding those small
planets to whose discovery Messrs. De Gras-
peris, Hind, Goldschmidt Luther and other
astronomers owe their celebrity. The writer
begins by remarking that the theory of Oh
bers, according to which these planetoids are
fragments of larger planet circulating be-
tween Mars and Jupiter, is no longer tenable.
This hypothetical planet must, according to
Kirkwood's calculation, have been larger
than Mars; that is, it must have exceeded
one-eighth of our globe. Now, as the aver
age diameter Of the sixty-two planetoids
hitherto discovered is not more than the
eightieth part of the terrestrial diameter, it
follows that, in the hypothesis of the destIuc-
tion of the large planet by some internal con-
vulsion or external collision, the number of
fragments existing must be about GA, 900.
Wi h such an immense number circulating
within the limited space of Mars and Jupiter,
and always, be it remembered, within the
belt of the Zodiac, how, asks the writer, is it
possible that the combined efforts of all the
astronomers of Europe, many of whom have
exclusively devoted their attention to this
particular subject, should only have led, in
sixty years, to the discovery Of sixty-two Of
these planets out of $4,000.
But the irregularities with which these
discoveries have been made is not less re-
msrkable. Thus, from 1901 to 1907 only
four were observed and period of thirty
eight years then elapsed before the discovery
of fifth planet in l845, since which period,
1. e., in the course of fifteen years, the rela-
lively enormous number of fifty. seven more
has been registered. This irregularity, the
writer contends, can not be satisfactorily
explained either by the excellence of mod
ern maps and telescopes or an increase in the
number of observatories; for sixty years ago
astronomy was very nearly what il is now.
He, therefore, instead of supposing the
destruction of an old planet, imagines the
gradual construction of a nelO one. Cosmical
| matter, he assumes, having found a conyen-
| lent vacant space between Mars and Jupiter
| has accumulated there IN the form of bolides
which, being mutually attracted by each
other, get soldered together, until they have
attained q sufficient magnitude to reteci
| light to our eye, when we see them under
| the form of the planetoids. In the course o
ages these planetoids will unite together anG
| form a new planet, which will move in al
! orbit intermediate between Mars and Jupiter
| The writer next applies this same princi
| pie to Saturn, whose marvellous ring, in hi
/ opinion, is nothing more than an accumula
| ton of cosmical matter attracted by the
| globe of Saturn. In course of time thiI
ring will become one with the planet, anC
matter will then accumulate in the anglt
| formed by the surface of the ring and tina
of the globe, until, with the aid of rotation
the whole shall have become globe likl
| other planets. The writer thinks it not i'm
probable that other planetary bodies whiel
are now globulsr may have had rings at th
commencement of their existence.