El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1917-03-12
Her Satellites
BY GARRETT p. sERvIss.

I clearly shows. It is transparent. SO that
! The globe OF the planet can be seen
through it This is sometimes called
: The Crepe Ring. as it IS about 5000 miles
across.
These rings are not solid Uniform
! bodiess but II has been proved that they
must consist Of vast multitudes OF par
| ticles' like meteors, which revolVe
around the planet in flat. Wheei-like,
or disk-like clouds. Where they are
, most numerous they reflect so much
Of the sunlight falling upon them that
they look like polished disks. but in the
I Crepe Ring they are so scattered that
the amount of light reflected only suf-
fices TO show the ghost OF a revolving
disk there.
Different Speeds.
II is possible with the aid OF the
spectrOsco9e. an instrument that is
able 10 detect the Velocities OF bodies
IN swift motion toward or away from
the observer, 10 measure the relative
speed of the particles composing the
three rings Those in the outer ring
move the most slowly. those OF the
central ring with greater speed, and
those Of the inner ring with still
greater speed. Taking the entire sys-
TEN OF rings into consideration. II may
be said that the inner edge takes about
two-fifths OF the time to make a revo-
luton that IS required by the outer
edge. the periods being respectively
SIX hours and ten hours.
But the globe OF the planet g no
rounding il. As q whole IL is ter
IMAM water, so that il would foe IL
there were an ocean large enough to
throw 1t into On account Of this
siShtness of density which character
ICES Saturn, as well as from other con-
siderations, astronomers are generally
agreed that il cannot be habitable
world. at least not in our terrestrial
sense OF that term Il is probably not
even in liquid condition. but rather
lu 4 Naporous state; in short. = vast
cloud--ball, having. possibly a core. or
-ucleus, o considerable density, and
gun.
some Theories.
In the remote future. perhaps. Saturn
III nave condensed into q verv dir
-eTent kind Of world from what Il is
today, and then. for all that we know.
life n some such forms as We are ac-
broad surface.
The picture shows eight Of saturn's
satellites or moons There are distant
bodies one OF which seems 10 -evoIve
around the planet in a direction con-
lrstry 10 the motion of all the others
These satellites. small as they look in
the picture beside their giant master.
are IN some cases much larger than our
moon It Is the belief OF some as
tronomers that they have been formed
out OF other rings which once sur
rounded Saturn. The present rings
would also, probably. turn into moons
y they were not so near the big planet
that Its tidal effect upon them sufffces
70 prevent their particles from ever
uniting 70 form single large gIobuiar
body, or even q number OF such bodies
once formed such bodies would be
speedily torn 10 pieces by the tidal
strain of Saturn's attraction. II has
been thought that. in CONSEQUENCES ~
the continual collisions occurring
among the particles Of the rings. their
velocity may be gradually DESTROYED. so
n at ava ~ Tf=-
the planet and some have Suggested
that the Crepe Ring is composed OF a
shower Of such falling particles shed
from the oenser rings above them.