Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-08-02
BY ROBERT ID. POTTER,
Science Editor, The American Weekly

1872 by American Weekly Inc Britain Rights Reserved
A STRONOMERS are searching for new,
- dark, secret child of our sun.
Nightly they scan the skies for Planet
" unknown planet and tenth in the family Of satel
lites that revolve around our source of all life.
Though they have never seen Planet X, astron-
omers know how big this new planet must be, and
they have good idea of its distance from the
earth
1t is almost the size Of this home of ours and
some thrty-fve times further out in space.
For this knowledge they thank DR.. r. S.
Richardson of Mt. Wilson Observatory who has
just announced his calculations of many years that
forecast this new member of the solar system.
In his calculations, recently reported to the
Astronomical Society of the Pacific, DR.. Richard
son forecasts that Planet will have orbit very
close to that OF the planet Pluto the ninth planet
discovered by astronomers and one, also, which
was predicted long before it was discovered.
Perhaps Planet \ will someday be named in
honor of DR.. Richardson. That is how Pluto, when
teesCoped in 1880, was christened
Pluto outermost planet now know had been
tucked off, sight unseen, by Professor Perciva
Lowell in the early years of the Goth century,
When it was finally discovered, scientists took the
first two letters, p and l., from the initials of
Percival Lowell.
Then they searched ancient Greek mythology
for some character whose name would start with
= and l.. Their detective work had not far to 60
for it quickly recalled that Pluto was the
hIech SOu Ol the CnueTWOTlu q hfeeK version OF
Satan.
AS ruler of the powers of darkness Pluto was
certainly fitting name for the outermost
derer of the Suns family of planets, since where
he was 1t was very very dark indeed.
With the sun forty times as far away as it is
from the earth, that shining orb, to man on
Pluto would look like the tip of pencil instead of
pie-plate in the sky. Moreover the suns warmth
on Pluto would be only one sixteen hundredth of
what it is on earth; not enough ever to raise the
temperature above the freezing point.
Pluto, god of the outer darkness, wanders in
chilling cold and Stygian darkness.
American poet Lytle's poem Anthony and
Cleopatra" often quoted by a past generation
refers to Pluto and Plutonism thus:
Il am dying, Egypt, dying,
Gibbs the crimson fe-tide fast,
And the dark Plutonian shadows
Gather on the evening blast"
In gust the same way that the name of Pluto
was decided, so may scientists conjure up name
for Planet X-athough it is difficult to recall
name from Greek mythology that begins with RSR,
the initials of the dscovercr.
Major scientific interest in Planet is that its
path, its orbit in the sky, ought to come Just at
the outer limits of the long eIliptical orbit in
which Halleys Comet wheels about the sum-
Halleys Comet and its spectacular arrival to
the region of the earth in 1910 was the event of
that year. (The comet aroused great interest
among astronomers because its time table" was
upset 1t got where it was expected to get Just
three days later)
What on earth or in the Heavens, could slow
up a comet, OBJECT OF awe among the SuperSttOus
prophet of disaster and what not, for seventy-two
hours?
One might well eXepect President Roosevelt
to be three days late for a conference with Mr.
Churchill
It was because Halleys Comet was late in its
arrival that DR. Richardson set to work on the in
trcate calculations that have now led TO the pre-
dCtion OF Planet y.
Falleys Comet swings around the sun in a
long and narrow orbit that takes II years to ira
verse In 1910 Halleys Comet was only 14,300000
miles away from the earth at its nearest approach
This may seem like a long way off but the
comet was so near that scientists still arguing
whether or not the earth passed through the dust
of its tail on May p, 1910.
At its most remote distance Haey's Comet
swings far out into space and is some 25 100000
miles away from the earth about forty times as
far away as Is the earth from the sun
The Hardness of 1Hllcy's Comet in 1910 made
astronomers suspect something maybe an nm
known planet, had made 1T iirl off ITS path bit
Whatever II was, something had made the