The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-08-24

that is to say. the time and labor necessary.
TO keep track OF them amounted 10 that In
good dollars Despite this care. seVeral
have been lost, and Photographic astronomy
is now trying 10 pick them up again, but
the majority of asteroids are so faint tha'
it seems likely that some that are lost have
disappeared altogether. Every new aster-
old. as has been said. has. therefore. 10 be
identified as a new member of the family
and not an old one turning up asain-a
matter of complicated astronomical mathe-
MATES.
vesta. the largest of the first group of
asteroids. has been estimated by Professor
Pickering of the Harvard Observatory, 10
be about 3l9 miles in diameter; the other
three are. perhaps, two-thirds as large Inc
smallest OF the legion discovered later is
probably less than ten miles in diameter.
and a sood-sized Western farm would con-
tain as much territory as its entire surface
area. Since the surface attraction. or, as
we call it Familiarity. the force of gravity
on two planets of the same density is in
proportion to their diameters, the magma
ton may picture the distant asteroid as
such a farm and indulge an almost unlim-
inc, for example. an American family TO
have emigrated TO this smallest of the
asteroids. The farmers wife. if she had
weighed two hundred pounds in Texas,
would weigh less than five ounces on the
surface of the asteroid; the COW that
thoughtlessly jumped a fence would leap
so high in the air that she would not get
back TO pasture in less THAN half an hour.
Such speculations. however. are not the
primary object of astronomy, although NJ.
F1ammarion, the French astronomer, holds
the opinion that these little worlds are very
likely peopled with little inhabitants.
ECCENTRIC ASTEROID.
The best known asteroid is Eros, discov-
cred at Heidelberg Aug. 13. 1898 1t differs
from every other member OF its family,
and from every other known celestial body.
No other celestial body. with the exception
of Saturn and his rings, has such distinct
individuality for Eros is not sphere. but
is probably either shaped like huge cigar,
that turns over and over in space, or like
enormous dinner plate that spins on an
axis, first one side up. then the other. The
asteroid is constantly changing in bright
ness, the change being so rapid that it can
be noticed in different parts of the same
photograph Other stars change in bril-
liancy because of the revolution about them
of other bodies; some celestial bodies vary
probably because they are darker on one
side than the other-as is the case, for eX-
ample with one of Saturn's outer satel-
lites. But Eros is distinctly different from
any Of these, and the whirling cigar or
spinning dinner plate theories are the most
If re
have been advanced. Eros, moreover. comes
nearer the earth, once every seven years,
than any other known planet. 1t is then
only 100000 miles distant, or less than
one-third the distance of the sun. At two
other times during the seven-year period it
approaches near enough to the earth to be
of great Importance in the mathematical
calculations with which astronomy studies
the distance of the other heavenly bodies
so much so that about fifty observatories
here and abroad make special observations
at that time.
For a long time the asteroids were given
names, but in recent years the practice has
been largely given up, although nomlnally
ii is not yet abandoned Scientifically they
are known by numbers. like the inmates of
a state prison, Eros, for example, being No.
49, The list of names has pretty well ex-
hausted the list of classical divinities, he
roes, magicians and other characters, all
more or less familiar to the general reader.
Brunhilda whom we have met in German
opera is No. 123, While POP commentaries
Penelope the faithful and Ito the famous
suitors) provokingly Industrious wife of
wandering Ulysses. Some are named after
the places of their discovery-Chicago, for
example Cleopatra, Hypatia, Gree and
Ophelia are among the family, and there
are also an Emma, Alice and Bertha
But the fact that nobody knows them by
name or sees them without telescope
save in a few cases-makes the office of
god parent not overexciting.
How the asteroids originated nobody
knows. nor has any theory been formulated
that is particularly convincing. They ex-
listed doubtless, millions of years before
discovery and there remain probably a
great many yet undiscovered, many Of them
too faint for any modern instrument to spy
out Their eccentricities, however, show
that the celestial universe presents prob
lens as complicated those Of nature as
il is studied on earth, and make even the
great steps recently taken In astronomy
only an indication of the untring patience
with which that science must continue to
/ advance.