The daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1904-1905, 1904-02-11

I He RINGS OF SATURN
THEY ARE COMPOSED or BILLIONS
or LITTLE MOONS.


solar system possesses billions of moons.
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 separately.
They are so crowded and at the same
time so far away from us that their
light is inextricably intermingled, and
the vast multitude looks, even in
powerful telescope, like frosted sur
face of silver.
These innumerable moons are collec-
lively designated in astronomical text
books as Saturn's rings But the word
rings is misleading. as is the APP
pearance of the objects 10 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 moon. 1t is only necessary
that it shall revolve regularly as a
satellite around its master planet.
Cur moon is comparatively a large
body, large enough for a respectable
planet if 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 moonship.
The larger moons Of Saturn revolve
around it at a greater distance than
that of the rings The latter are rela-
lively close to the planet. and in that
fact we have a elew to their origin
that is to say, their nearness to the
planet explains why they are so small
and so numerous. 1t can be proved
that our big moon would be broken in
to numberless fragments if it revolved
within about IL 900 miles of the earth's
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 Saturn's crowd of moons things
happen that are characteristic of all
crowds. They pull and haul one an
other. though perhaps always keeping
at arms length. They vacillate and
lurch and WAIVER to and fro. They coll
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 a 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 stragglers or the
staggering OF unsteady marchers stays
the advance of an army. 1t is the
steady, onward sweep of a great COM
pany governed by a 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
a ting if telescopes had not revealed it.
Narrow, empty spaces divide this Gu
rious host into three or four separate
legions.
Inasmuch as these billions of little
bodies are not separately visible from
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 solidg'
There are two ways in which we
law of gravitation assures us that solid
rings could not exist in such a situa-
ton. | have mentioned before what
would happen to the earth's moon if it
came near enough to our globe to feel
the effects of the gigantic tidal forces
to which a close approach would sub
ject it. Mathematical calculation has
proved that Saturn's rings could not
even be liquid bodies without being
broken up into numberless separate
particles.
In the second place, the spectroscope
has shown that the rings travel around
Saturn with a speed that gradually in
creases from their outer to their inner
edges How the spectroscope is able
to give us this information is one of the
most surprising stories i'll astronomy,
but it would take too much space to
tell it now. All that we need to say
here is that the spectroscope shows UNI
mistakably that the rings of Saturn
move in such way as only multi
tude of separate, Independent bodies,
travelling side by side in the same d1-
rection, could move. The nearer they
are to Saturn the faster they go, and
accordingly if enc could stand on the
surface of Saturn and look up at the
circles of moons over his head he would
see the nearer ones racing past their
next outer neighbors and those in turn
outstrpping their more distant COM
panions. and so on to the outermost linn
its of the wonderful system.
Truly, the heavens are more full of
novelties than the brain of dreamer.
Garrett p. Serviss in Detroit Free
Press.