The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-05-17
THE PLANET SATURN
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The s"urni"n Mass Would Float
- Large as Our Earth, Meighs Much
BY SIR ROBERT BALL.

was made in the year 1910. Calico had
just perfected that wonderful telescope
which for the first time enabled man
TO view the heavens under more advan-
Esgeous circumstances than those which
the mere optical apparatus provided by
nature afforded him. Calico discovered
by the help of his new instrument that
the object which HAD been known from
tnle immemorial by the name of Sat
urn, was not a mere globe like the sun
or the moon, Jupiter or Venus. What
Calico saw, or at all events thought
ne saw, was that this particular planet
consisted of a large central globe, ac
cOnpanled by two other smaller globes,
one on each side. To use his own eX-
preston III announcing his discovery,
he had seen Saturn three-fold' In
the course Of movement of the planet
a time presently arrived when, to the
establishment Of Calico, these two ap
pended globes disappeared. Can it
be, asked the great philosopher, that
Saturn has devoured his children
SATURNIAN PHENOMENA
For forty-five years the nature of the
extraordinary appendages to Saturn
which were sometimes visible, and
sometimes invisible, presented an enig-
ma to astronomers. Huyghens, how
ever, in 1865, by d combination of acute
observation and ingenious reasoning,
demonstrated that the phenomena in
question could only be produced by
ring which, though completely detach-
ed from Saturn, revolved round the
great central globe Nearly two CEN
turtles and half have elapsed since
the Saturnian mystery was thus hap
PLY explained, and each succeeding
generation of astronomers has done its
best to explain more fully the marvel
Gus features of this ringed system.
The stream of discovery has thus flow
ed onward continually Indeed. very
important step has been made only
quite recently, in Illustration of the
ultimate texture of the ring.
After the achievement of HukghenS,
the next great advance in our knowl
edge of the Saturnian system is due to
j. K. D. Cassini, who discovered Me
row well known dark line of division
which marks the ring into two re
gions, namely, the inner ring and the
outer ring. The existence of this i'm
portant feature was announced in 1915.
No doubt it is now entertained that this
dark line is not merely a mark, but
ring into two distinct portions. Up
to the present, however, it does not
seem to have been quite demonstrated
that ii is possible to see clearly through
the line of CaSsini. There would be
only one really satisfactory method of
testing the question as to the dark
mark being actually a void space, but
the opportunity for putting this test
into practice does not as yet appear
to have risen. As Saturn moves across
the heavens it must occasionally pass
between the earth and certain of the
fixed stars. If it should so happen that
the planet passed over a sufficiently
bright star it would be extremely in
teresting to observe whether the star
could be diseerned through the dark
line. If that line were really an actual
opening. the star should be seen shin
ing with undiminished brilliance
through the narrow aperture.
Besides this division so we'll known
TO every observer, there is another
much fainter line which marks the
outer ring into TWO nearly equal por-
tions. 1t is generally best seen at the
eXtremities most remote from the plan
ct. Evidently in this case there is not
a complete division through the sub
stance of the ring. There can also be
10 QOuBl lIidl uI4tE circumstances GN-
ceptionally favorable for observation,
many other divisions are to be discern
ed in both rings besides those more
prominent ones which we have here
mentioned. In fact glimpses of Saturn
have been occasionally obtained which
seem to show the rings divided into a
series of ribbons of bright material,
separated by narrow dark lines. No
doubt such a theory of ring formation
can hardly be regarded as thoroughly
well established; at the same time it
must be observed that what we GER
tainly know as to the structure of the
ring. and this is a point which wilsbe
dealt with presently. leads US to the
belief that some such subdivision of
the broad fiat rings into multitudes of
narrow concentric rings, Is certainly
possible.
one reason why our knowledge of
the features of Saturn and its rings has
been gathered in so slowly, is connect
ed with the long period required by
this planet to accomplish a revolution
around the sun. Saturn takes no less
than thirty years for each of these
great journeys. AS there are only par
ticular parts of its orbit in which GER
tain of the phenomena can be studied
10 advantage, it necessarily follows
that much time may often have to
elapse in the complete calculation of
any particular point. Thus, for in
stance, on the question of visibility
through the dark lines there is a GER
tain position in which the planet is
sometimes placed which might throw
much light on the matter. 1t will oc-
casionally happen in the course of Sat
urn's movement around the sun that
the plane of the ring passes between
the earth and the sun. In such a case
It would not be the sun-illumined side
which would then be turned towards
the earth, as is generally the case The
face on which the sun does shine would
be that which was then exposed to our
inspection. Such an occurrence would
afford a very interesting object for
those who are provided with good tel
escapes. SO slowly does the planet
move however, that we must
wait until the year 1907 before
the necessary opportunity arises
THE GRAPE RING.
A very remarkable extension was
given 10 our knowledge of the planet
in 1850. Up to that time it had been
supposed that the ringed system con-
sisted simply of the two we'll known
bright objects divided By the conspicu-
Gus line Of Cassini. But in the year we
have named. Professor Bond, the dis
tinguished astronomer of Harvard col
lege observatory, Cambridge, Mass,
made an announcement which riveted
the attention of the astronomical world.
He announced that besides the two
well known rings, there was yet an
other which had eluded the penetra ton
of all previous astronomers. This third
ring extended from the innermoSt mar