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mean distance from the earth is about sixty times the earth's mean radius or 240000 miles; so that twice the distance of the moon is 480000 miles, which differs but little from the solar radius; his equatorial radius is probably not much less than the major axis of the lunar orbit.

The diameter of the moon is only 2160 miles; and Jupiter's diameter of 88000 miles is incomparably less than that of the sun. The diameter of Pallas does not much exceed 71 miles, so that an inhabitant of that planet, in one of our steam-carriages, might go round his world in five or six hours.

The oblate form of the celestial bodies indicates rotatory motion, and this has been confirmed, in most cases, by tracing spots on their surfaces, whence their poles and times of rotation have been determined. The rotation of Mercury is unknown, on account of his proximity to the sun; and that of the new planets has not yet been ascertained. The sun revolves in twenty-five days ten hours, about an axis that is directed towards a point half way between the pole star and Lyra, the plane of rotation being inclined a little more than 70° to that on which the earth revolves. From the rotation of the sun, there is every reason to believe that he has a progressive motion in space, although the direction to which he tends is as yet unknown: but in consequence of the reaction of the planets, he describes a small irregular orbit about the centre of inertia of the system, never deviating from his position by more than twice his own diameter, or about seven times the distance of the moon from the earth.

The sun and all his attendants rotate from west to east on axes that remain nearly parallel to themselves in every point of their orbit, and with angular velocities that are sensibly uniform. Although the uniformity in the direction of their rotation is a circumstance hitherto unaccounted for in the economy of Nature, yet from the design and adaptation of every other part to the perfection of the whole, a coincidence so remarkable cannot be accidental; and as the revolutions of the planets and satellites are also from west to east, it is evident that both must have arisen from the primitive causes which have determined the planetary motions.

The larger planets rotate in shorter periods than the smaller planets and the earth; their compression is consequently greater, and the action of the sun and of their satellites occasions a nutation in their axes, and a precession of their equinoxes, similar to that which obtains in the terrestrial spheroid from the attraction of the sun and moon on the prominent matter at the equator. In comparing the periods of the revolutions of Jupiter and Saturn with the times of their rotation, it appears that a year of Jupiter contains nearly ten thousand of his days, and that of Saturn about thirty thousand Saturnian days.

The appearance of Saturn is unparalleled in the system of the world; he is surrounded by a ring even brighter than himself, which always remains in the plane of his equator, and viewed with a very good telescope, it is found to consist of two concentric rings, divided by a dark band. By the laws of mechanics, it is impossible that this body can retain its position by the adhesion of its particles alone; it must necessarily revolve with a velocity that will generate a centrifugal force sufficient to balance the attraction of Saturn. Observation confirms the truth of these principles, showing that the rings rotate about the planet in 10 hours, which is considerably less than the time a satellite would take to revolve about Saturn at the same distance. Their plane is inclined to the ecliptic at an angle of 31°; and in consequence of this obliquity of position they always appear elliptical to us, but with an eccentricity so variable as even to be occasionally like a straight line drawn across the planet. At present the apparent axes of the rings are as 1000 to 160; and on the 29th of September, 1832, the plane of the rings will pass through the centre of the earth when they will be visible only with superior instruments, and will appear like a fine line across the disc of Saturn. On the 1st of December in the same year, the plane of the rings will pass through the centre of the sun.

It is a singular result of the theory, that the rings could not maintain their stability of rotation if they were everywhere of uniform thickness; for the smallest disturbance would destroy the equilibrium, which would become more and more deranged, till at last they would be precipitated on the surface of the

planet. The rings of Saturn must therefore be irregular solids of unequal breadth in the different parts of the circumference, so that their centres of gravity do not coincide with the centres of their figures.

Professor Struve has also discovered that the centre of the ring is not concentric with the centre of Saturn; the interval between the outer edge of the globe of the planet and the outer edge of the ring on one side, is 11".073, and on the other side the interval is 11".288; consequently there is an eccentricity of the globe in the ring of 0".215.

If the rings obeyed different forces, they would not remain. in the same plane, but the powerful attraction of Saturn always maintains them and his satellites in the plane of his equator. The rings, by their mutual action, and that of the sun and satellites, must oscillate about the centre of Saturn, and produce phenomena of light and shadow, whose periods extend to many years.

The periods of the rotation of the moon and the other satellites are equal to the times of their revolutions, consequently these bodies always turn the same face to their primaries; however, as the mean motion of the moon is subject to a secular inequality which will ultimately amount to many circumferences, if the rotation of the moon were perfectly uniform, and not affected by the same inequalities, it would cease exactly to counterbalance the motion of revolution; and the moon, in the course of ages, would successively and gradually discover every point of her surface to the earth. But theory proves that this never can happen; for the rotation of the moon, though it does not partake of the periodic inequalities of her revolution, is affected by the same secular variations, so that her motions of rotation and revolution round the earth will always balance each other, and remain equal. This circumstance arises from the form of the lunar spheroid, which has three principal axes of different lengths at right angles to each other. The moon is flattened at the poles from her centrifugal force, therefore her polar axis is least; the other two are in the plane of her equator, but that directed towards the earth is the greatest. The attraction of the earth, as if it had drawn out that part of the moon's equator, constantly brings the greatest axis, and con

sequently the same hemisphere towards us, which makes her rotation participate in the secular variations in her mean motion of revolution. Even if the angular velocities of rotation and revolution had not been nicely balanced in the beginning of the moon's motion, the attraction of the earth would have recalled the greatest axis to the direction of the line joining the centres of the earth and moon; so that it would vibrate on each side of that line in the same manner as a pendulum oscillates on each side of the vertical from the influence of gravitation.

No such libration is perceptible; and as the smallest disturbance would make it evident, it is clear that if the moon. has ever been touched by a comet, the mass of the latter must have been extremely small; for if it had been only the hundred-thousandth part of that of the earth, it would have rendered the libration sensible. A similar libration exists in the motions of Jupiter's satellites; but although the comet of 1767 and 1779 passed through the midst of them, their libration still remains insensible. It is true, the moon is liable to librations depending on the position of the spectator; at her rising, part of the western edge of her disc is visible, which is invisible at her setting, and the contrary takes place with regard to her eastern edge. There are also librations arising from the relative positions of the earth and moon in their respective orbits, but as they are only optical appearances, one hemisphere will be eternally concealed from the earth. For the same reason, the earth, which must be so splendid an object to one lunar hemisphere, will be for ever veiled from the other. On account of these circumstances, the remoter hemisphere of the moon has its day a fortnight long, and a night of the same duration not even enlightened by a moon, while the favoured side is illuminated by the reflection of the earth during its long night. A moon exhibiting a surface thirteen times larger than ours, with all the varieties of clouds, land, and water coming successively into view, would be a splendid object to a lunar traveller in a journey to his antipodes.

The great height of the lunar mountains probably has a considerable influence on the phenomena of her motion, the more so as her compression is small, and her mass considerable.

In the curve passing through the poles, and that diameter of the moon which always points to the earth, nature has furnished a permanent meridian, to which the different spots on her surface have been referred, and their positions determined with as much accuracy as those of many of the most remarkable places on the surface of our globe.

The rotation of the earth which determines the length of the day may be regarded as one of the most important elements in the system of the world. It serves as a measure of time, and forms the standard of comparison for the revolutions of the celestial bodies, which by their proportional increase or decrease would soon disclose any changes it might sustain. Theory and observation concur in proving, that among the innumerable vicissitudes that prevail throughout creation, the period of the earth's diurnal rotation is immutable. A fluid, as Mr. Babbage observes, in falling from a higher to a lower level, carries with it the velocity due to its revolution with the earth at a greater distance from its centre. It will therefore accelerate, although to an almost infinitesimal extent, the earth's daily rotation. The sum of all these increments of velocity, arising from the descent of all the rivers on the earth's surface, would in time become perceptible, did not nature, by the process of evaporation, raise the waters back to their sources; and thus again by removing matter to a greater distance from the centre, destroy the velocity generated by its previous approach; so that the descent of the rivers does not affect the earth's rotation. Enormous masses projected by volcanoes from the equator to the poles, and the contrary, would indeed affect it, but there is no evidence of such convulsions. The disturbing action of the moon and planets, which has so powerful an effect on the revolution of the earth, in no way influences its rotation: the constant friction of the trade winds on the mountains and continents between the tropics does not impede its velocity, which theory even proves to be the same, as if the sea together with the earth formed one solid mass. But although these circumstances be inefficient, a variation in the mean temperature would certainly occasion a corresponding change in the velocity of rotation for in the science of dynamics, it is a principle in a system

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