The herald., 1898-12-11
OUR NEW CELESTIAL NEIGHBOR
Little Tot Of World Seventeen Miles in Diameter Waltz
ing Back and Forth Between the
Earth and Mars

though its discovery was deemed of the
highest Importance, yet, on account OF its
small size it did not fully satisfy the de-
mands of those whose theories had led to
the search for an adequate planet between
Mars and Jupiter. The search was conse-
auently renewed, and was well rewarded a
year later, when in March, 1902, DR.. Olbers
discovered companion planet which he
named Pallas.
Upon investigating the orbit of Pallas
two very interesting facts were brought out.
1t was found to be highly eccentric and also
much inclined to the ecliptic. As the orbits
OF Ceres and Palas intersected at a certain
point, DR.. Olbers reasoned that they were
fragments OF a broken planet and that prob
ably other fragments would be found. 1t
was not till 1904 that the third asteroid,
Juno, was discovered by Harding at Lilien
| thai.
The fourth member of the group was dis
covered by DR.. Olbers in 1907 and was
named Nesia. The search was continued
Tor several years without further results,
and it was nearly forty years before the
fifth planet in the group was seen. An anne
teur astronomer named Hencke had been
engaged in studying the smaller stars OF the
schptc for fifteen years in hopes OF finding
Il new asterold, when, in the year 1S45 he
was rewarded by detecting the fifth, which
he named Astraea. He also discovered the
sixth two years later. Since then from one
to twenty or more have been discovered
every year, till at the present date the
number OF listed minor planets exceeds 430.
The little planets were given names by
the discoverers but when their number be
came too inconveniently large to renee
Der in that way, they were numbered in the
order OF their discovery, the Distinguishing
number being enclosed in circle or paren-
thesis. Astrea was designated as (5).
All OF the asteroids discovered prior to
1891 were first detected with the telescope,
but IN November of the year named, Max
Wolf inaugurated a revolution in the meth
cd of discovery by capturing No 1929 on
Photographic plate, and during the follow
ing year twenty-four out OF twenty-eight
were picked up by the new method. Wolf.
by the way, named No. (34l) California.
The principal discoverers thus far are
Palisa of Vienna. who found SO; Charlois OF
Nice, SO; Peters of Litchtield, \. u, AZ;
Max Wolf OF Heidelburg. 33: Luther OF
Dusseldorf, "a; Watson OF Ann Arbor, Do
and thrty-eight other astronomers who
have secured from one to fourteen each.
The distances OF the asteroids from the
sun vary enormously. Medusa (l49), one OF
the nearest hitherto. is 1913 000, 900 miles and
lis period 81 years, while Thule (279) is
397 100000 miles, and its period S.S years.
The eccentrlcitiy OF their orbits also vaEies
greatly: Aethra (l2S). for instance is 3l2,-
000,0 900 miles at its greatest distance, being
Just double its least distance, which is lJG,.
1000.
All OF the minor planets suffer great per-
turbations when approaching conjunction
with the giant planet Jupiter. For this rea-
son it is difficult to compute their orbits,
ard these perturbations have been used TO
determine with greater accuracy the mass OF
that planet