Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-26
DECLARES EARTH
CAPTURED MOON
ASTRONOMER MAKES STRANGE
ANNOUNCEMENT
OLD THEORIES OF SCIENCE ARE
UTTERLY REJECTED
Professor See of Naval Observatory at
Mare Island Reads Important
Paper Relative to
Luna's Status

SAN FRANCISCO, June 25.-An-
nouncement was made tonight by Prof.
I. j. j. See, astronomer in charge of
the naval observatory at Mare Island,
that he has mathematically proved
discovery that the moon is planet
captured by the earth from space ana
not a detached portion of our globe.
He rejects entirely the long accepted
theories of Laplace and Sir George
Darwin ascribing earthly origin to the
moon and asserts that his discovery
is supported by rigorous mathematical
proof, based on the methods of Hill,
Poincare and Darwin.
Prof. Sees announcement was made
in a paper presented to the meeting
of the Astronomical society of the Pa
cific coast and is a further development
of his discovery promulgated last
January that all planets and satellites
are captured bodies, which have since
had their orbits reduced in size and
rounded up under the secular action
of the nebular resisting medium once
pervading the solar system.
In his former paper presenting this
theory Prof. See showed how these
bodies, which once revolved around the
sun like the asteroids now do, had made
circuits close about the planets. In
the neighborhood of a planet like
Jupiter, the sphere of the suns control
was shown to have an extension or
protuberance on it, like the neck of
bottle, or hourg glass with very unequal
bulbs and when the small bodies NOV
ing about the sun came into this neck
they could revolve about Jupiter, and
in many cases again return to their
paths about the sun.
Captured by Planet
In other cases after revolving about
Jupiter they would be captured by the
action of the nebulous resisting medium
about the planet and stay there forever
as satellites.
BY revolving about the planet for
long time, their orbits would be round
ed up into almost perfect circles and
made smaller and smaller, till they be-
came lust like the satellite orbits are
now observed to be. Such, he says,
has been the origin of the satellites gem
orally, and the rings of Saturn have
had similar origin by the capture of
waste nebulosity once circulating
around the sun. When this matter is
once brought in near the planet, it
cannot again escape, but must stay
there permanently beca"se in the space
near the planet the planets attraction
is supreme.
In the case of the terrestrial moon,
however, more than usual uncertainty
originated and a special investigation
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 argument that the
moon had once been a part of the earth
had to be overcome.
This Prof. See says he has done with
entire success, and tonight he an
nounced that he had proved mathemat-
ically that our moon too had been cap
tured and had come to us from the
heavenly spaces.
1t was, he says, originally planet
like Mercury, but not quite so large,
and moved about the sun at nearly the
same distance as the earth. Then 1t
came between the sun and the earth Ill
such a way as to enter the neck of the
space resembling a bottle neck project
ing from the suns sphere of control and
enclosing the earth.
How 1t Happened
This neck was quite small and mar
row, but the bulb of space enclosing
the earth and constituting its sphere
of attraction was of considerable size.
When the moon had once left the suns
control and gone into the bulb about
the earth it met with some resistance,
and the neck became closed, so that the
moon was bottled up" under the
earth's control and could not escape.
Hence it has remained with the earth
ever since, and will always abide
with us.
BY revolving about the earth in the
space controlled by our planet, the
moon has met with considerable resist
ance and its orbit has become smaller
and smaller and also rounder and
rounder. Thus it has come nearer and
nearer the earth, but never has been
closer than at present.
Thus" he concludes, "Darwin's
theory of the moons detachment from
the earth is overthrown and an entirely
new theory developed which has the
support of all the highest mathematical
science now known"
In a second paper communicated to
the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
tonight Prof. See explained the famous
outstanding inequality of six seconds
in the secular accleration of the moons S
mean motion. He said thfs perturba-
ton in the moons motion had been dis
covered by HALEY in the time of New
ton 1t was partially explained by Le-
place in 1887, but gravity alone would
not account for the observed accelera-
ton since the time of the Chaldeans.
720 B. c., and the outstanding differ
ence had perplexed the greatest mathe-
maticians for more than a century.
Having discovered that the moon was
originally captured and was still slowly
nearing the earth, Prof. See said he had
removed the last difficulty, and the re-
suit would be decided improvement
in astronomy.