The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-05-17
TIE I'll
FL ss AREC oMPos oFFs3s lB ~: HONS;
IS OF LITTLE MOofis

1hese sateIIztes$A Are So y ume roHszz
Tl:st. Ear From Counting trls en,.
we cannot Even See TIem eou-s
rafeIy-One OF Natures Marvel s-
The next to the largest world in our
solar system possesses billions ofmoons.
There can be no doubt that the number
is literally billions. They are SO nu-
merous that far from counting them.
we cannot even see them separa tely.
The; are SO crowded and at the same
time so far away from us that their
light is inextricably interninSled, and
the vast multitude looks. even IN q
powerful telescope, like frosted sur
face OF silver.
These innumerable moons are collec-
lively designated in Astronomical text
books as Saturns rings. But the word
"rings" is misleading, as is the APP
pear;l nee of the objects to which the
word is applied. They are not solid.
connected rings, although they look SO.
They are little moons. arranged in
concrete circles. Individually they
may be no larger than meteors. But
there is no particular size that moon
must have before it is entitled to be
called Il moon. 1t is only necessary
that it shall revolve regularly as
ga cllite around its master planet
Our moon is comparatively large
body. large enough for respecta Die
planet ii it were independent OF the
earth. Jupiter, and Saturn, too, for
that matter. has moons still larger
than ours. Mars, on the other hand
has only two very small moons So
size is no criterion of noonship.
The larger moons of Saturn rcvolve
eros or. distances. IL n
that of the rings. The latter are rela-
lively close to the planet. and in that
fact we have a cew to their oriGin-
that is to say, ther. nearness to the
planet explains why they are so small
and SO numerous. It can be proved
that our big moon would be broken in
to nunlberlesS fragments il it rcvolved
within about II 600 miles of the earth $
surface Then we. too, should have
rings of little moons about us in place
of the single large moon that travels
alone its monthly round.
In So turns crowd of moons things
happen that are characteristic OF all
crowds They pull and haul one an
other, though perhaps always keeidn2
at arms length. They vacillate and
lurch and WAIVER to,and fro. They col
lect into jams, though probably With
out much actual touching or clashinG
together, and the crowd grows thinner
in some places, while thicker in others.
Great waves of commotion run through:
this vast moon horde as through flock
of hurrying sheep
And yet, upon the whole, they are an
orderly assemblage. They never pause
in their onward movement along their
fixed path about Saturn. The. vagaries
of individuals do not affect the general
forward movement any more than the
dropping out and in of stra GGlers or the
staggering of unsteady marchers stays
the advance of an army. 1t is the
steady, onward sweep of q great com
pany governed by single compelling
principle of action. In many respects
it is the strangest thing in the whole
visible universe. Nobody would ever
have dreamed of the existence of such
Il thing If telescopes had not revealed it.
Narrow. empty spaces divide this GU
rious host into three or four separat"
legions.
Inasnuch as these billions of littl"
bodies are not separately visible fro1i
the earth, the question may naturally
be asked: ''How do you know that they
exist? How can you tell that the rings
of Saturn are not solid?''
There are two ways in which We
know ana can tell. In the nrSt place, the
law Of gravitation assures us that solid
rings could not exist in such situa
ton. have mentioned before what
would happen to the eartl's moon if it
came near enough to our globe to feel
the~efrects of the gigantic tidal forces
to which 4 close approach would sub
ject it. Mathematical calculation has
proved that Saturn's rings could no.
even be liquid bodies without being
broken up into numberess separate
particles
In the second place. the spectroscorr
has shown that the rings travel around.
Saturn With = speed that gradually in
crciseS from their outer to their inner
edges. How the spectroscope is able
to give us this informa ton is one of the
most surprising stories in astronomy
but it would take too much space to
tell it now. All that we need to saI;
here is that the spectroscope shows I'M
mistakably that the rings Of Saturn
move in such 4 way as only multi
tude Of separate, Independent bodies.
travelling side by side in the same di-
recton. could move The nearer they
are to Saturn the faster they so, and
accordingly If one could stand on the
surface of Saturn and look up at the