New-York tribune., 1879-03-15
THE HOME OF TIE METEORS.

PROFESSOR PEIRCE'S NEW SOLAR THEORY.
REASONS FOR BELIEVING THKRE Is A SPHERICAL
SHELL OF METEoRIC MATTER AROUND THE SOLAR
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES FROM COMETS, MErEoRs
AND THE HEAT FROM SPACE
frpoN AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT oP THE TRIBUNE
BosToN. March 1 l. A remarkable theory as TO the
outskirts of our solar system was advanced last
week in a lecture by Professor Benjamin Perce, OF
Harvard College He stated that the theory has not
vet been given to the scientific world, but Will he
in q short time. Briefly, his theory is that far
beyond the outcrmost planet, bounding our solar
system. is a vast spherical shell Of matter broken
nm into small fragments from which come the
meteors and comets This shell he calls the home
of the meteors. He gave with detail the reasons
why some such theory must be adopted to explain
the movements of the planets and comets and the
nersistence of the constant amount of heat given
ont from the sum- The hitherto accepted theory
that comets may be-, and some necessarily are,
strangers to our system, he rejects. The pregnant
sentences of his arguments and conclusions
given below:
Except few comets there is nothing in the posi-
ton Of their orbits which indicates relation to the
solar axis Of rotation, or the planetary planes OF
revolution. They are as uniformly distributed
if they had entered the system lndierenty from
every direction and without reference to the inter
tion. Observation shows that all the comets which
approach the sun within observed distances are dis
tributed through space with great uniformity. As
suminp that the sphere Of the suns attraction eX-
tends half way to the nearest fixed star such sphere
has diameter over 100, 900 times the diameter of
the eartis orbit and comet wOuld require SG7,-
600 600 years to pass from the regions of terrestrial
visibility to the limits of the sphere and just
long to return. The comets annually appearing
three Hence the whole number of comets which
are capable of being from the earth at perihe-
lion and which are contained in our suns sphere,
may he fairly estimated at over j.000000,000
Now each comet may be assumed to be as heavy
as those which have been weighed approximately,
especially as many which have entered the sphere
of observation must have escaped being seen. Then
the mass of each individual comet exceeds on an
average. sphere 100 miles III diameter, with
density equal to that of the earth. Such % mass is
about observation-disclosures part of the
earlhs mass. The aggregate mass Of comets would
then be IL, 900 times the mass of the earth. Tins
is one-fortieth of the mass of the sun. Were the
sphere extended beyond Ncptunc's orbit, the mass
would equal the suns mass and be hundreds Of times
too small The observed velOcitics of comets would
be totally insufficient to carry them out to the
bounds of the solar territory against the force of
gTavitation subject to this immense increase. No
comet could have entered our domain and descended
to visibility, without having acquired a velocity far
exceeding that Of the observed comets The hy-
pohess of the cosmical origin of the comets may he
considered to have refuted itself. Comets must be
adopted into our family group, notwithstanding
their unhkeness and irrcgularity
Taking up the source of the suns heat, Professor
Peirce argued from the inadequacy of the theories
of compression and chemical action, that the heat
must be sustained By bodies falling into the suu
He discusses length the number Of meteors cross
ing the eaIts orbit those falling into the sun and
on the earth, and by careful mathematical compu-
tatiOn reaches what he calls the unexpected and
startling result that the heat which the earth
ccIvcs directly from the mcteOrs is the same in
amount which II receives from the By radiation
There can be no doubt of the validity of this strange
cOnclusIOn although II has not yet reached seen
tc publications Ii Is still more strange that II is
verified by accurate observations made long ago by
a most eminent and Trustworthy authority but
which have never been discussed in relation TO Their
significance nor have they been doubted.
The next point in Professor PcircCs demonstra-
ton was the heat from space which the earth re-
ccves, and the mpOssIbIlty that II could come
from either the stars or from vacant space. tx
pcrimcuts show that as much a. hvc-slXths of the
heat received by the earth from the sun Is received
from space. Only an iBhntcsimal of the lght re-
Ccycd comes from the stars, and il j. unphusOphi-
cal to attribute 10 them nearly as much heat
comes from the sun But the phenomenon Of heat
theory. Returning to the original round nebula