Part 1 (1/2)
The Sun changes its position in s.p.a.ce.
by August Tischner.
The system of Copernicus is the only possible system; it is the eternal base of all astronomical progress, with this system the science of Astronomy stands and falls, and without it we must give up all explication as well as every scientifically founded predication. Hence it is clear that an astronomer of the present day cannot enter upon any other system, even by way of trial.
Dr. _J. H. Madler_. Popul. Astr. 1861. p.p. 48. 54. 62.
_An army of philosophers will not suffice to change the nature of an error and to convert it into truth. Ebn-Roshd (Averrhoes), Arabian philosopher of the XII^{th} century._
Astronomical science, at the present day insists upon the system of Copernicus, which, as is well known, is based upon the theory _of a fixed sun_, and remains convinced of the incontrovertible truth and importance of this system, even after it has become an incontestable fact, that the sun changes its position; endeavouring to explain away this discrepancy by the sophism, that the sun may be considered as _in a condition of rest_. But the smallest movement of the sun overthrows the entire fabric of Copernicus. Unless we take into account the observations, made for the last 3000 years, respecting the movement of the sun in s.p.a.ce, it is impossible to comprehend the solar system and its movements. Theory must take notice of the phenomena of the sun's own movement and dare not cloak it under imaginary causes; for so long as the motion of the sun is ignored, it is impossible to know thoroughly the motion of the earth which follows it, and if the motion of the earth be not known, it is also impossible to know the motion of the other heavenly bodies, belonging to the solar system, as seen from the earth.
In a word, the astronomical theory, as it is now generally accepted and believed to be the only and doubtless true, is wholly untenable, requiring _a total and essential_ reformation; astronomical authors cling to J. H. Madler's a.s.sertion, that every body will understand the impossibility for an astronomer of our time to enter upon any other system even by way of trial.
If this theory be converted into a _dogma_, stagnation must commence and all progress becomes impossible. In the history of science and its advance, we find that there have been at all times new theories propounded, which had often to be changed later on, or even set aside by others diametrically opposite. The princ.i.p.al circ.u.mstance which renders the system of Copernicus impossible, is that the orbits of the planets _are considered as closed curves around the sun_. This view has frequently been attacked; but it is maintained by astronomers, as it is requisite for the elucidation of the system. Still it is evident that if the centre of attraction moves forward the bodies attracted by it _cannot move around it_.
Let us examine the system of Copernicus. Ptolemaeus first introduced his system among the ancients. The earth was the fixed centre of the world and around it moved the moon, the sun, the planets and the stars. This system lasted for XV centuries.
The Ptolemaic system was modified by Copernicus, and the system of Copernicus was simply the inversion of the Ptolemaic. The sun took the place of the earth. In the centre was a fixed point (earth or sun), around which the planets moved in larger or smaller orbits.
The main feature of both systems is that one of the heavenly bodies is _stationary, in order that the others may travel round it_.
Copernicus makes the sun _to be motionless_, and the scientific world bows before his authority. Then we have the recurrent curves, _closed orbits_ (or ellipses) with their axes and their _invariable plains_; for the planets _move round the centre of the fixed sun_.
Whilst however learned men were striving with feverish ardour to confirm the system of Copernicus; whilst they were endeavouring to demonstrate in every possible way and by various means clearly, _that the sun is immoveable_: there came the discovery _that the sun moves_.
The astronomers of the past century proved that the sun not only has the apparent motion, which every one sees; but that it also has a motion proper to itself. Herschel commenced defining the course and direction of it, and now-a-days no one doubts the truth of this fact, it being the general opinion that not only the sun moves itself, but that nothing at all in the world is in a state of rest. Astronomers, however, are of opinion that this discovery is of _no consequence whatever as regards the system of Copernicus, which is still considered by them to be the most correct of all and the only possible one_. For more than a century there has not been found a single astronomer or scientific man, to whom it has occurred _that the motion proper to the sun, might have, in some way or another, an influence on the present state of theoretical science_. They all seem to regard _this fact_ as an accident, involving no consequences and quite incapable of distracting them from their labours, which they continue to work in the same manner as is indicated in the system of Copernicus.
If an advancing motion is admitted to be the motion proper to the sun, _the orbits traversed by the planets cannot be closed_.
But the question may be asked: is it true that science contradicts itself in this way? We reply: Yes! astronomical _observation has overtaken theoretical or explicative science_. _Theory has stood still._
In order to set their minds at rest, learned men explain what they wish to explain, and just as heavenly phenomena were accounted for according the systems of Ptolemaeus, of Copernicus and of Tycho de Brahe, so too there will be no lack of good reasons to account for the motion proper to the sun; only history will tell us that the astronomers of the last but one decennium of the XIX^{th} century have taught by writing and speaking in their schools, that the sun is at the same time moving and not moving.
A science which cannot make any use of this immense discovery, nor deduce any application from it, does not possess any vital power; it is a dead science, it is strangled by those whose duty is to keep it alive, to lead it onwards to perfection.
Astronomers a.s.sert ”_that the sun conducts its system with himself in mundane s.p.a.ce_,” but in the same breath they add: ”_with reference however to the planets it may be regarded as in a state of rest_.”
Hence astronomers have discovered _a motion which is at rest_.
If the sun is _not fixed_, the system of Copernicus falls to ground.
Either the sun moves, or does not; a moving sun in a condition of rest, _is an impossibility_.
If the sun moves, there is _no fixed centre_, there are _no closed or recurrent curves and no plains of orbits_. If these must be obtained at any price, the sun must be definitively fixed, it cannot be permitted _to move onwards and yet at the same time not to move_.
The fact that the sun moves, cannot now be altered and cannot be any longer ignored; and if mathematicians and astronomers do notwithstanding a.s.sert, that the sun may with reference to its own planetary system be regarded as fixed, or in a condition of rest, in that the system moves as a whole without any change taking place in the relative position of the planets to each other, or in their relation to the sun; in fact without any alteration taking place in the _configuration_ of the system--we reply, this is one of those meaningless phrases, which should find no place in a scientific discussion. _A body which is in motion cannot be in any way regarded as being motionless_, it would be just as reasonable to say that a locomotive, dragging a train of carriages full of pa.s.sengers, could with reference to the latter be regarded as motionless.
The actual meaning of such an a.s.sertion is that the planets are attached to the sun in such a manner, that they can neither approach to, nor recede from it, but must follow it whithersoever it goes.
We may in thought pursue a train of hypotheses and suppositions, but they do not thereby acquire reality; still, in a normal condition of the human intellect, it is impossible to conceive that any thing can exist and not exist at the same time.