Part 11 (2/2)

A very simple proportion, known as Bode's law, has been observed, which indicates approximately the relative distances of the planets fro from 0, write the number 3, and double successively,

0 3 6 12 24 48 96 192 384

Then, add the nuives the following series:

4 7 10 16 28 52 100 196 388

Now it is a very curious fact that if the distance between the Earth and the Sun be represented by 10, the figure 4 represents the orbit of Mercury, 7 that of Venus, 16 of Mars; the figure 28 stands for the medium distance of the minor planets; the distances of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus agree with 52, 100, and 196

The immortal French mathematician Le Verrier, who pursued the solution of the Uranian proble planet must be at the distance of 388, and ly

Its direction in the Heavens was indicated by the for, as it were, on the side of the disturbing factor

On August 31, 1846, Le Verrier announced the position of the ultra-Uranian planet, and on Septe, a German astronomer, Galle, at the Observatory of Berlin, who had just received this intelligence, pointed his telescope toward the quarter of the Heavens designated, and, in fact, attested the presence of the new orb

Without quitting his study table, Le Verrier, by the sole use of mathematics, had detected, and, as it were, touched at pen's point the er

Only, it is proved by observation and calculation that it is less reravitates at a distance of 300, given that from the Earth to the Sun as 10

This planet was called Neptune, God of the seas, son of Saturn, brother of Jupiter The na of the Ocean lives in darkness in the depths of the sea, and Le Verrier'sobis also plunged in the semi-obscurity of the depths of the celestial element

But it was prilish astronomer, Adams, who had simultaneously made the same calculations as Le Verrier, and obtained the sa them His work remained in the records of the Greenwich Observatory

The English coer into the water and find it salt, they feel themselves ”at home,” and know that ”Neptune's trident is the scepter of the world,” hence this complimentary nomenclature

Neptune is separated by a distance of four milliards, four hundred million kilometers froreater than that which exists between the Sun and our world, Neptune receives nine hundred tien and the polar regions of our globe are furnaces compared hat must be the Neptunian temperature Absolutely invisible to the unaided eye, this world presents in the telescope the aspect of a star of the eighth nifications it is possible to ed with blue Its diaer than our own, and measures about 48,000 kilometers (29,900 miles), its surface is sixteen times vaster than that of the Earth, and to attain its volulobes siht at its surface must be about the same as here, but its ravitates slowly, dragging itself along an orbit thirty tilobe, and its revolution takes 164 years, 281 days, _ie_, 164 years, 9 enerations of terrestrial life Existence e in that tortoise-footed world!

While in their rotation period, Mercury accomplishes 47 kilometers (29-3/8 miles) per second, and the Earth 29-1/2 (18-1/8his immense orbit at a rate of only 5-1/2 kilometers (about 3-1/4 miles) per second

The vast distance that separates us prevents our distinguishi+ng any details of his surface, but spectral analysis reveals the presence of an absorbent atases unknown to the air of our planet, and of which the chemical composition resembles that of the atmosphere of Uranus

One satellite has been discovered for Neptune It has a considerable inclination, and rotates frooal of our interplanetary journey After visiting the vast provinces of the solar republic, we feel yet greater adoverns, warms, and illuminates the worlds of his systeain insist that the Earth,--a splendid orb as viewed froins to disappear from Jupiter, where she beco fro in front of him as a small black dot From Saturn the visibility of our planet is even more reduced As to Uranus and Neptune, we are invisible there, at least to eyes constructed like our own We do not possess in the Universe the importance hich ould endow ourselves

Neptune up to the present guards the portals of our celestial system; ill leave hi to the Earth, we lance at certain eccentric orbs, at the ht upon the realms of space

CHAPTER VII

THE COMETS

SHOOTING STARS, BOLIDES, URANOLITHS OR METEORIC STONES