The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-09-01

| The Harvard CoueSe OpSer-
| ago, another member OF the
numerous family OF aste-
| rojds. or little planets, whose eccentrlc
! doings in the armament make THEM
| virtually the freaks of modern astroh+
! omy. The first remarkable thing apouI
| this Particular aSteroid was It's ioca-
| ton, very far to the south, where no
asteroid was at that time expecteu.
| The photograph was taken from ~ etie
| Southern station of the Harvard %
| servatorv AT Areouipa, Peru. When
| the plate was examined at Campriuagoeo,
! with the other plates, now over 1oo'ooo
| in number, already accumulated IN tho
| Observatory archives, the little aste-
roid was plainly visible among the
hundreds of stars photographed at the
same time. Being IN more raplo soU
ton than the stars it had made short
line on the plate while the stars SIM
ply appeared as dots. :,
Prof. Simon Newcomb, well known
to all persons interested in astronomy
for his work on the American Nautlcal
Almanac, was visiting in Cambridge
and undertook to compute the orbit OF
the new asteroid. 1t was found to
have a greater ellipticity than any
known planet and to approach closer
to the sun Moving as II around the
longer circumference of a great loot
ball its distances from the sun vary
in a single revolution more than those
+ of any other member OF It's wandering
family. But for this fact, however,
the discovery would have excited little
interest, fer astronomers have already
more asteroids to take care OF than
are altogether welcome. Within the
last century something over oOo Oh
them have been discovered and one
German observatory devotes itself en-
inc q
Value of the Asteroids.
The asteroids have proved of con-
siderable value in measuring the dis
lance from the earth to the sun; but
as one astronomer has said, two or
right kind would be worth
more than the whole 500.
Their peculiarities prove, indeed, that
the laws of the celestial universe are
quite as complicated as those of ter
restrial nature, but the knowledge is
as yet, more interesting than practi-
cally valuable to astronomical study.
Meantime they greatly complicate the
routine business of such an observatory
as that at Harvard, which is devoted
to the task of keeping Photographic
record year by year of all the stars
known to astronomy. If it were not
for the German observatory that takes
prove an actual nuisance.
Suppose, for example, we imagine
the armament to be a vast field con-
tanning countless sheep moving in a
regularly ordained manner about pole
in the center. The pole is the Pole
Star; some of the sheep are planets,
others are stars, still others are aSter-
oids; and Photographic astronomy is
the shepherd. Now, the shepherd is
so well acquainted with the move
ments of the planet and star sheep
that he always knows in what part of
/ the field to look for them at any par
I ticular momeint, but the asteroid sheep
are wanderers. The shepherd, looking
at the condition of his charges in any
given part of the field is likely to find
among them a new arrival and the
question must Immediately be answer
ed, is this an actual addition to the
flock, or an old asteroid sheep? If the
armament were really fiat field, in
stead OF being space itself, the aSter-
oids would be constantly in danger Of
running into each other, or into the
other celestial bodies. Their orbits
constitute a series of rings so inter-
woven by crossing each other that if
the rings were tangible and one of
them could be lifted up the whole
bunch would follow. But each asteroid
moves in different plane from any
other celestial body, and for that rea-
son there are no collisions.
Curiosity in Astronomy.
The discovery of the asteroid family
was one of the most curious events in
: astronomical history. 1t followed the
first celestial discovery made by look
ing for a given object in the place
where astronomical science declared
such an object ought to be although
there was no visible sign of it. Pre-
viouS TO the 18th century, astronomy,
still in medieval darkness so far as
concerned photography, spectrosCopic
analysis, or telescopes driven by cleo
trical attachments was contented with
six planets, one satellite, and some
very general theories about the stars.
In 1910, Gallileo saw the first satellite
of Jupiter and a certain Tuscan as
Gronomer wrote as follows: 'Those sa-
telliteS are invisible to the naked eye,
and therefore can exercise no influ-
ence on the earth, and therefore would
be useless, and therefore do not exist.
Besides, the Jews and other ancient ma
tons, as well as modern Europeans,
have adopted the division Of the week
into seven days. and have named them
from the seven panetS; now if we in
crease the number of planets the whole
system falls to the ground" This
sapient decision neither discredited
Gallileo's newly invented telescope nor
stopped the discoveries of the later
centuries.
But even at this early period, KEEP
ler-whose temptation to accept the
comets as living creatures travelling
through space like fishes in the sea"
is an interesting reflection of contem-
porary astronomy-had noticed Curl
Nj gus relation between the positions of
the known planets and the sun. The