Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1888-05-03
ASTRONOMICAL SCIENCE.
Its Progress During the Nineteenth
Century.
From the Sidereal Messenger

From the Sidereal Messenger
Looking back at the year 1900, we are
astonished at the change. The compare.
lively simple science of the heavenly
bodies known TO our predecessors, almost
perfect so far as it went, incurious of what
lay beyond its grasp, has developed into q
body of manifold powers and parts, each
with its separate mode and means OF
growth, full of strong vitality, but ami
mated by restless and unsatisfied spirit
haunted by the sense of problems unsolved
and tormented by conscious impotence to
sound the immensities it perpetually con-
fronts.
knowledge might then be said to be
bounded by the solar system; but even the
solar system presented itself under al
aspect strangely different from that it now
wears. 1t consisted of the sun, seven
planets, and twice as many satellites, all
circling harmoniously and III obedience to
a universal law, by the compensating
action of which the indefinite stability of
their mutual relations was secured. The
occasional incursion of comet, or the
periodical presence of a single such wan
derer, chained by planetary or solar attrac-
tion, to prevent escape to outer space,
availed nothing to impair the symmetry
of the majestic spectacle.
Now, not alone have the ascel tanned lin
it's of the system been widened by 1,00O,-
100000 of miles, with the addition of one
more giant planet and six satellites to the
ancient classes of its members, but COM
plexity has been given to its constitution
battling description or thought. Two hun
dred and seventy circulating planetary
bodies bridge the gap between Jupiter and
Mars, the complete investigation of the
movements of any one of which would
overtask the energies of a lifetime Mete-
orites, strangers apparently to the funda-
mental ordering of the solar household,
swarm nevertheless, by millions in every
Granny of its space, returning at regular
intervals like the comets so singularly as
sociated with them, or sweeping across it
with hyperbolic velOcities, brought per-
haps from some distant star. And each OF
these cosmical grains of dust has theory
far more complex than that of Jupiter; it
bears within it the secret of its origin, and
fulflls function in the universe. The
sun itself is no longer semi-fabulous, fire.
girt globe, but the vast scene of the play OF
forces as yet imperfectly known to us
Offering boundless field for the most ardu-
Gus and inspiring researches. Amongst the
pianets the widest variety in physical hab-
itudes is seen to prevail, and each is recog
nized as world apart, inviting inquiries
which, to be effective, must necessarily be
special and detailed. Even our own moon
threatens 10 break loose from the tram
mels of calculation, and commits errors
which sap the very foundations Of
the lunar theory, and suggest
the formidable necessity for its revision
Nay, the steadfast earth has forfeited the
implicit confidence placed in it as a time
keeper and questions relating to the sta
bility of the earth's axis, and the constancy
those which it behooves the future 70 an
swer. Everywhere there is multiformity
ard change, stimulating a curiosity which
the rapid development of methods of re-
search offers the possibility of at least par
TALLY gratifying.
Outside the solar system the problems
which demand practical solution are all
infinite in number and extent. And these
have all arisen and crowded upon our
thoughts within less than one hundred
years. For sidereal science became re-
cognized branch of astronomy only through
Herschel's discovery of the revolutions of
double stars in 1902. Yet already it may
be and has been called 'the astronomy of
the future" so rapidly has the develop
ment of keen and universal interest at
tended and stimulated the growth of power
to investigate this sublime subject. What
has been done is little-is scarcely a be-
ginning yet it is much in comparison with
the total blank of a century past. And our
knowledge will, we are easily persuaded,
appear in turn the merest ignorance to
those who come after US. Yet it is not to
be despised, since by it we seach up cropping
fingers to touch the hem of the garment of
the Most High.