Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1909-07-08
"MOON CAPTURED BY EARTH,
NOT DETACHED"
BY PROF. T. J. J. SEE.
astronomer in Charge of Naval Observatory at Mare
Island, CALI


have mathematicaly proved a discovery that the
moon is a planet captured by the earth from space and
not a detached portion of our globe. / reject entirely the
long-accepted theories Of Laplace and Sir George Darwin
~ascribing earthly origin to the moon. My discovery is
supported by rigorous mathematical proof, based on the
methods of Hill. Poincare and Darwin.
This announcement is a further development of my
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 pervadipg
the solar system. I showed how these bodies, which once
reyolved around the sun like the asteroids now do, had
made circuits close about the planets. In the neighbor-
hood of a planet like Jupiter the sphere of the suns con-
troll is shown to have an extension, or protuberance, on it,
like the neck of a bottle, or hourglass with very unequal
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 captured by the action of the nebulous resisting me
dunn about the planet, and stay there forever as satellites.
By revolving about the planet for a long time their
orbits would be rounded up into almost perfect circles,
and made smaller and smaller, till they became just like
the satellite orbits are now observed to be. Such 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 satel-
lIC lSlidlS IN q Sp6Cldl MV6SIlSdLlOD Oh 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. l have proved mathe-
maticaly that our moon, too, had been captured, and had
come to us from the heavenly spaces.
1t was originally a planet like Mercury. but not unite
SO large, and moved about the sun at nearly the same dis.
lance as the earth. Then 1t came between the sun and
the earth in such a 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 ouite
small and narrow, but the bulb Of space enclosing the
earth and constituting its sphere of attraction was of con,
siderable size. When the moon had once left the SUMS
control and gone into the bulb about the earth. II mel
with some resistance, and the neck became closed. 40 that
the moon was bottled up" under the earth's control and
could not escape. Hence, 1t 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 re-
sistance, and its orbit has become smaller and smalle,
and also rounder and rounder. Thus 1t has come neare,
and nearer the earth, but never has been closer than Al
present. Darwin's theory of the moons detachment from
the earth is overthrow, and an entirely new theory de
veloped which has the support Of all the highest mathe
NAUTICAL science now known.
The famous outstanding inequality of six seconds il
the secular acceleration Of the moons mean motion /
thus explained. This perturbation in the moons motto,
had been discovered by HALEY in the time Of Newton
1t was partially explained by Leplace in 1887. but grayit
alone would not account for the observed acceleratio
since the time of the C~haldeans, B. G. 100. and the ON
standing difference had perplexed the greatest mathema
tcians for more than a century. Having discovered tina
the moon was originally captured, and was still slowl
nearing the earth, | have removed the last difficulty an
the result will be a decided improvement in astronomy.