The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1909-06-28
MOON CAPTURED
By EARTH
PROF. SEE, AN ASTRONOMER,
HAS PROVED MOON Is A PLAN
EFT CAPTURED FROM sPACH
AND NOT PART OF GLOBE.

| nouncemeht was maze tonight Dy
Professor T. ]. ]. See, astronomer in
charge OF the naval observatory at
More Island, that he has mathemat-
ically proved discovery that the
moon is planet captured by the
earth from space and not a detached
portion Of our globe. He rejects en-
tirely the long accepted theories of
Laplace and Sir George Darwin as
cribing earthly origin to the moon
and asserts that his discovery is sup
ported by rigorous mathematical
proof based on the methods OF Hill,
Poincare and Darwin.
Professor Sees announcement was
made In paper presented to the
meeting of the Astronomical Society
of the Pacific Coast and is a further
development Of his discovery pro-
mulgated last January that all plan
cts and satellites are captured bodies,
which have since had their orbits re-
duced in size and rounded up under
the secular action Of the nebular re-
sisting medium once prevailing the
solar system. In his former paper
presenting this theory, Professor See
showed how these bodies, which once
revolved around the sun like the as
teroids now do, had made circuits
al oh hn MI re- thn
neighborhood Of planet like Jupiter,
the sphere of the suns control was
shown to have an extension or pro-
tuberance on it, like the neck of
bottle, or hour-glass with very I'M
equal bulbs, and when the small
bodies moving about the sun came
into this neck they could revolve
about Jupiter, and in many cases
again return to their paths about the
sun. In other cases after revolving
about Jupiter they would be captur-
ed by the action of the nebulous re-
sisting medium about the planet, and
stay there forever as satellites.
BY revolving about the planet for
long time, their orbits would be
rounded up into almost perfect cir
cles, and made smaller and smaller,
till they became just like the satellite
orbits are now observed to be- Such,
he says has been the origin of the
satellites generally, and the rings of
Saturn have had a similar origin-by
the capture of waste nebulosity once
circulating around the sun. When
this matter is once brought in near
the planet, it can not again escape.
but must stay there permanently be-
cause in the space near the planet
the planets attraction is supreme
In the case Of the terrestrial moon,
however, more than usual uncertain
ty existed as to how this large satel-
lite originated and a special investi-
cation of the problem had to be
made. The moons mass is relatively
very large, about one-eightieth of the
earth's mass; and then Darwins ar
gument that the moon had once been
a part of the earth had to be over
come. This Professor See says he
has done with entire success, and
recently he announced that he had
proved mathematically that our moon
too had been captured and had come
to us from the heavenly spaces.
1t was, he says, originally a plan
ct like Mercury, but not quite so
large, and moved about the sun at
nearly the same distance as the earth.
Then it came between the sun and
the earth in such way as to enter
the neck of the space resembling a
bottle neck projecting from the suns
sphere of control and enclosing the
earth. This neck was quite small
and narrow, but the bulb of space en-
closing the earth and constituting its
sphere of attraction was of consid-
cradle size. When the moon had
ohCC lCiL luC sun COulTOi anu gone
into the bulb about the earth, 1t met
with some resistance, and the neck
became closed, so that the moon was
bottled up" under the earth's con-
troll and could not escape. Hence it
has remained with the earth ever
since, and will always bide with US.
BY revolving about the earth in
the space controlled by our planet,
the moon had met with considerable
resistance, and its orbit has become
smaller and smaller and also rounder
and rounder. Thus it has come near
er the earth, but, never has been
closer than at present. Thus" he
concludes, "Darwin's theory of the
moons detachment from the earth is