The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1898-11-12
A REMARKABLE NEW PLANET,
terOids That Has n Peculiar
Orbit of Its Own.

Of all the different departments OF
astronomical work minor planet" dis
covery has seemed by far the least in
teresting and profitable. There seemed
no end to their numbers-more than
$50 having been detected within the
last ten years; they are too small for
any markings 10 be observed on their
surfaces or TO afford fields for delight
full speculations as TO their climates and
inhabitants; they are just wandering
powders, as numerous as the pebbles
on the ~seashore, and with for the most
part scarcely more individuality to re-
pay the astronomer for the toll of
keeping 4 watch on their motions ard
of computing their orbits, so that it
was with u decided feeling of salts
faction that most astronomers saw the
first half of the present year go by
without a single fresh discovery.
The last two months, however, have
each brought a new capture; the first
discoveries by NJ. Charlois. of the Nice
observatory, on July 16, having no spe-
cial claims to attention, but the second,
discovered by Herr Witt, of the Urania
observatory, Berlin, on August Il,
seems to ave so remarkable an orbit
that astronomers will think the labor
spent on the discovery and observation
of the other 43O or so of these little
bodies well bestowed, since it has led
to the discovery of this one.
The chief interest of minor planet"
astronomy has lain in the suitability
of some of them for use in the deter
mination of the fundamental unit of as
tronomy, the distance of the earth from
the sun. Some of them come sufficient
ly near the earth every now and then
for their distance to be determined
with considerable precision. And as
the relative distances of the various
planets can easily be ascertained, to
know the distance accurately of n
is 10 know the distance of all.
But the minor planets" as a body lie
between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars
and only one or two come nearer to the
sun than the mean distance of Mars.
The new planet, unlike all its brethren,
If the first attempts at the calculation
of its orbit are to be received. has its
mean distance from the sun within that
of Mars. and. travelling in a very eccen-
trio orbit, will approach the earth,
when it is at its nearest approach to
both earth and sun at the same time,
within $4,000. 900 miles. 1t will be
at such times our nearest neighbor in
space after the moon herself, but such
close oppositions will only occur about
once in so years. The time of revoiu-
tion of the new planet is Gas days.
Like the other pocket planets" 1t
is of very small size, say 20 to 25 miles
in diameter. but on the occasion of a
very close opposition it will shine as a
sixth magnitude star, and therefore be
visible to the naked eye. Even at its
most distant oppositions it will be OF
the eleventh magnitude. five or SIX
times as bright. that is, as most of the
more recently discovered minor planets.
This fact makes it most remarkable
that it has not been discovered earlier,
and creates the hope that other bodies
nearer than Mars may be detected. At
any rate. it will revive the interest in
the search for small celestial wander
crs, of which If is at present by far the
most useful and interesting.-Londor
Times,