Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1909-06-26
THE MOON
A CAPTIVE
PRONUNCIATION Of Discovery Of
Astronomer See
WAS ORIGINALLY A PLANET
Terrestrial Satellite Was
Caught Between the In
fluences of Jupiter and
the Earth and Became a
Prisoner of the Latter.

Berkeley. Cal, June 25.-Announce-
ment was made tonight by Prof. T. ].
J. Soc. astronomer in charge of the
naval observatory at Mare Island, that
he has mathematically proved a dis
coverv that the moon is a planet cap
tured by the earth from space and not
a detached portion of our globe. He
rejects entirely the long accepted theo-
ries of Laplace and Sir George Darwin
ascribing 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.
Prof Sees announcement was made
in a paper presented to the meeting of
the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
coast. and is a further development of
his discovery promulgated last jan
uary that all planets and satellites are
captured bodies, which have since had
their orbits reduced in size and round
ed up under the secular action of the
nebular resisting medium once per
vading the solar system. In his for
per paper presenting this theory, Prof.
See showed how these bodies, which
once revolved around the sun, like
the asteroids now do. had made cir
cults 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 pro-
tuberance on it. like the neck of a
bottle. or hour-glass with very un-
equal bulbs. and when the small bodies
Z I,a Trafn
neck they could revolve about Jupiter.
and in many cases again return 20
their paths about the Sun. 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
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
cannot again escape, but must stay
there permanently. because in the space
near the planet the planets attraction
is supreme.
In the case Of the Terrestrial Moon,
however, more than usual uncertainty
existed as to how this large satellite
originated and a specia! investigation
Of the problem had to be made. The
Moons mass is relatively very large,
about one-eighth of the earth's mass;
and then Darwin's argument that the
Moon had once been a part of the
earth had TO be overcome. This Pro-
fessor See says. he has done with en-
tire success, and tonight he announced
that he had proved mathematically
that our moon too had been captured
and had come to US from the heavenly
spaces.
It was. he says, originally a planet
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 a way as to enter the neck of ,
the space resembling bottle neck pro-
jecting from the Suns sphere Of con-
troll and enclosing the earth. This neck