Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-06-23

aLd we can readily see how. passing
outward from the most favorable
distance, we should tind the fggre -
thong. Though large sad massive, YET il
terror to the first, and growing legs with
distance from the sun. This wculd &C
count for the relative masses OF Saturn
aTd Uranus; but no. for the f.ct init
Neptune is somewhat more massive
thsu UTsLus. Here, however, we
may recognize perhaps the evidence
of the gathering in matter from
without; for q planet on the outs
skirts Of forming system al travelling
through space, SIS our system siw.ys has,
with enormous velocity, would have
better opportunities thsn those 1T less
distance from 'he center for gathering in
scattered matter through which the
system Travelled. But besides this il
should be noticed that although Neptune
is larger absolutely than Uranus, be IS
smaller Tels.iveIy-thtt is. when We con-
slider the MSS with reference TO the
much larger zone ever which he bears
sway in his circuit round the sun, ard
from which the bulk CT MS material was
gstlerad.
While the theory of Deteoric sggregS-
ton thus accounts well for Ehe dis.ribu-
ton OF matter throughout
THE FAMILY OF THE GIANT PLANETS,
it also gives al account of the peculiar
arrangement Of the masses inside the Cr-
bit OF Jupiter.
We can understand Why Mercury, near
est to the sun, should be the smallest of
the terreatrial planets, formed IS it is
wnere the velocities were very great
Venus should be larger and the earth
larger still, the velocit;es diminishing
rapidly outward, SIS we have seen. But
MATS would not be the largest OF
all the terrestrial planet, be-
cause at his distance the irfue1ce
OF Jupiter, not only per!ur6ing the re-
gion within, but gathering away material
from it, would be felt, rendering sggregs-
ton difficult. Sill further out, this dis
tubing and misunderstanding Influence
would be greater still; so that the forma-
ticn of single aggregation would be in
possible. In the zone Just inside the
croft OF Jupiter the meteoric cloud out OF
| which the solar system WAS formed would
be still more effectively drained OF its
wealth By Jupiter, Rnd so perturbed by
| his action thst great or single planet
could not be formed; here, Their, instead
| teroids, quaintly described by Dr.. Whe
well SIS planet "spoiled IN the making"
| The distribution Of satellite masses is
very fairly accounted for by the meteoric
aggregation theory. The existence of 8
companion body like the neon attending
On the chief Terrestrial planet csn be
readily understood; and also the ex-
isteEce of two exceedingly small moons
1 - y
attending on Mars. OF course Jupiter
and Saturn, formed under the conditions
above described, might be expected to
hsve noble attendant systems. Even the
! abnormal relations found in the systems
OF Uranus ana Neptune, 81 the outskirts
! of the solar system, are natural coDse-
quences Of process OF aggregation such
as l hSve considered, while they can
| hardly be recOnciled at al With Laplsce's
| imagined process Of ne5ular cOndensa-
ton.
| may be asked perhsps-let me note
lGssly-hoW I reconcile this theory of
metoric aggregation as the process by
which the sun and planets were formed)
with my theory that the metecrs. and
meteor systems now existing are Tor the
most parts products of election from the
planets sud come lew from the sun. One
might equally ask an insect who hsd
come to regard the sell from which
his tree home grew "a formed oi
decGyed leaves snd other vegets b Z
matter how he could reconcile thEt VIE "
with the theory that the leaves 9: M
tree are products Of the soil. The meters
row scattered throughout the sola- Ey3-
TEN bear something like the same rels
ton TO the original wealth Of the meteeric
matter that the leaves OF the forest bear
to the soil ia which the forest trees are
growing. RICHARD A. PROCTOR.