The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-08-24
Little Wanderers I'm
The Mighty Heavens
Asteroids Have Given Astronomers rluch Trouble.
Importance of the Asteroid.

field, instead of being space itself. the
asteroids would be constantly in dan
ger of running into each other, or into
the other celestial bodies. Their or
bits constitute a series of rings so
interviewer 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 a different plane
from any other celestial body. and for
that reason there are no collisions.
The discovery of the asteroid fam
lily was one of the most curious events
in astronomical history. 1t followed
the first celestial discovery made by
looking for given object in
the place where astronomical sci
ence declared such an object
visible sign of it. Previous to the 18th
century, astronomy, still in medieval
darkness so far as concerned photo
graphy, spectroscopic analysis, or tele-
scopes driven by electrical attach
ments, was contented with six planets,
one satellite, and some very general
theories about the stars. In 1910, Gal
lleo saw the first satellite of Jupiter
and certain Tuscan astronomer
wrote as follows: Those satellites are
invisible to the naked eye, and there
earth, and therefore would be useless,
and therefore do not exist. Besides,
the Jews and other ancient nations. as
well as modern Europeans, have
adopted the division of the week into
seven days, and have named them
from the seven planets: now If we in
crease the number Of planets the
whole system falls to the ground"
This sapient decision neither discredit-
- - 81 81
nor stopped the discoveries of the later
centuries.
But even at this early period, Kepler
whose temptation to accept the COM
ct as living creatures travelling
through space like fishes in the sea"
is an interesting reflection Of contem-
porary astronomy-had noticed a Gu
rious relation between the positions of
the known planets and the sun. The
planets seemed to be arranged In a
mathematically ordered progression.
The order would have been complete II
there had been just one more planet
visible in a certain position between
Mars and Jupiter Kepler suggested,
as later proved TO be the case, that the
planet was there, only 1t was invisible.
More than a century later the astrono-
mer Bode enunciated a mathematical
law that reduced the respective dis
tances of the planets to terms of the
radius of the earth's orbit, and this
law was confirmed by the finding Of
Uranus in 1771-although il must be
added that Neptune, discovered in 1876.
does not confrom to It. But the space
between Mars and Jupiter is still
empty.
Bodies law, now generally considered
simply an interesting coincidence. led.
however, to perhaps the most pictur-
esque astronomical investigation on
record. The year 1900 saw at Lilien-
thai. Germany, the organization Of an
astronomical society to find the missing
link I'm the chain Of planetary progress
sion. The Zodiac was divided between
"a astronomers, ano "a telescopes. each
IN it's own territory, were soon search
ing for the undiscovered planet. At
that time no primary planet had been
discovered within the limits OF the
solar system. BODIES law was, and L.,
wholly empirical, and the prospect OF
success was evidently very uncertain;
nor, failing OF success. did there APP
pear 20 be any time limit when the
search could be considered definitely
over. So far a. could then be Judged
the descendants Of the "a German as