The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-08-24

tronomers might still be gazing at
their respective claims and wondering
when the hidden gold of the planet
would reward their efforts.
Meantime, in Palermo. Sicily, the
actual astronomical Columbus was
searching the sky, not in quest of any
particular planet but on general sci
entihc principles. On Jan. 1, 1901.
Prof Giuseppe Piazzi noticed what
seemed to be a new star of about the
eighth magnitude twnkling between
! Mars and Jupiter. 1t was not marked
on any chart of the heavens and was,
IN fact, not the burning light of a star
but the reflected light of the sun shin
ing from the surface of little planet
the first known asteroid. 1t fulfilled
Kepler's prophecy and seemed, at first
sight, to prove BODIES law. 1t was
named Ceres Ferdinandea in honor of
tile tutelary goddess and of the reign
ing king of Sicily-an honor that lately
astronomers have taken from the king
and given wholly to the goddess-and
the first fruit of it's study was the dis
coVery of a second member of the
same family.
In March of the next year DR.. Will
liam Obers, at Bremen, discovered,
much to his surprise, for he was en-
gagged merely in examining the relative
positions of the stars near Ceres, the
second asteroid. Pallas. In 1904 Juno
the third asteroid, was discovered; in
1907. Vesta; and here for the time be-
ing, the discoveries rested. The four
little planets were believed to have
.once been part of the same mass and
were therefore taken together as COM
pieting the law of planetary progress
sion. There was no further discovery
until 1916, when one asteroid was add
ed to the list. In 1847. three more were
discovered. Since that time the use Of
photography and the individual efforts
OF certain number of "asteroid hunt
ers" has brought the number to over
500. Seven have been found on a sim
gle Photographic plate taken by the
Harvard Observatory.
The camera, however, and the regu-
lar astronomical observer differ from
the "asteroid hunter" in that they
study the heavens without any de-
sire to find another of these little
planets The hunter takes his tele-
scope and devotes himself to care
full examination of given portion of
the sky with the hope of finding an
asteroid not already known to other
astronomers. II he succeeds the new
planet is eventually given a number
in the "Berliner Jahrbuch" and every
thing about 1t recorded for the benefit
of other observers. Until recently 1t
asteroid; that is to say, the time and
labor necessary to keep track of them
amounted to that in good dollars. De-
spite this care several have been lost
and Photographic astronomy is now
trying to pick them up again, but the
majority of asteroids are so faint that
Il seems likely that some that are
lost have disappeared altogether. Ev-
cry new asteroid, as has been said,
has, therefore, to be identified as
new member of the family and not an
old one turned up again-a matter of
complicated astronomical mathematics.
/ Vesta, the largest of the first group
of asteroids, has been estimated by
Prof. Pickering of the Harvard Observ-
atory to be about 319 miles in dame
ter; the other three are perhaps two
thirds as large. This smallest of the
legion discovered later is probably less
than ten miles in diameter, and good
sized Western farm would contain as
much territory as its entire surface
area. Since the surface attraction, or,
as we call IL Familiarity, the force of
gravity, on two planets of the same
density is In proportion to their diam
eters, the Imagination may picture the
distant aSteroid as such a farm and
indulge an almost unlimited number of
amusing deductions. Imagine. for cx-
ample, an American family to have
emigrated to this smallest Of the as
teroids. The farmers wife, II she had
weighed 200 pounds In Texas. would
weigh less than i've ounces on the
surface OF the asteroid the COW that
thougntlessly jumped d fence would
leap so high In the air that she would
not get back 10 pasture In less than
half an hour. Such speeuiations, how
ever. are not the primary object OF
astronomy although M. Flammarion,
the French astronomer. holds the
opinion that these little worlds ara