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Page 53
It is a very serious difficulty that at least one satellite does
not revolve in the right direction. How Neptune or Uranus could
throw their moons backward from its equator is not easily accounted
for. It is at least one Parthian arrow at the system, not necessarily
fatal, but certainly dangerous.
A greater difficulty is presented by the recently discovered satellites
of Mars. The inner one goes round the planet in one-third part of
the time of the latter's revolution. How Mars could impart three
times the speed to a body flying off its surface that it has itself,
has caused several defenders of the hypothesis to rush forward
with explanations, but none with anything more than mere imaginary
collisions with some comet. It is to be noticed that accounting for
three times the speed is not enough; for as Mars shrunk away from
the [Page 187] ring that formed that satellite, it ought itself to
attain more speed, as the sun revolves faster than its planets, and
the earth faster than its moon. In defending the hypothesis, Mitchel
said: "Suppose we had discovered that it required more time for
Saturn or Jupiter to rotate on their axes than for their nearest
moon to revolve round them in its orbit; this would have falsified
the theory." It is also asserted that the newly discovered planet
Vulcan makes an orbital in less time than the sun makes an axial
revolution.
In regard to one Martial moon, Professor Kirkwood, on whom Proctor
conferred the highest title that could be conferred, "the modern
Kepler," says: "Unless some explanation can be given, the short period
of the inner satellite will be doubtless regarded as a conclusive
argument against the nebular hypothesis." If gravitation be sufficient
to account for the various motions of the heavenly bodies, we have
a perplexing problem in the star known as 1830 Groombridge, now
in the Hunting Dogs of Bootes. It is thought to have a speed of
two hundred miles per second--a velocity that all the known matter
in the universe could not give to the star by all its combined
attraction. Neither could all that attraction stop the motion of
the star, or bend it into an orbit. Its motion must be accounted
for on some hypothesis other than the nebular.
The nebul� which we are able to observe are not altogether confirmatory
of the hypothesis under consideration. They have the most fantastic
shapes, as if they had no relation to rotating suns in the formative
stages. There are vast gaps in the middle, where they ought to be
densest. Mr. Plumer, in the _Natural Science Review_, [Page 188]
says, in regard to the results of the spectroscopic revelations: "We
are furnished with distinct proof that the gases so examined are not
only of nearly equal density, but that they exist in a low state of
_tension. This fact is fatal to the nebular theory._"
In the autumn of 1876 a star blazed out in Cygnus, which promised
to throw a flood of light on the question of world-making. Its
spectrum was like some of the fixed stars. It probably blazed ont
by condensation from some previously invisible nebula. But its
brilliancy diminished swiftly, when it ought to have taken millions
of years to cool. If the theory was true, it ought to have behaved
very differently. It should have regularly condensed from gas to a
solid sun by slow process. But, worst of all, after being a star
awhile, it showed unmistakable proofs of turning into a cloud-mist--a
star into a nebula, instead of _vice versa_. A possible explanation
will be considered under variable stars.
Such are a few of the many difficulties in the way of accepting
the nebular hypothesis, as at present explained, as being the true
mode of development of the solar system. Doubtless it has come
from a hot and diffused condition into its present state; but when
such men as Proctor, Newcomb, and Kirkwood see difficulties that
cannot be explained, contradictions that cannot be reconciled by
the principles of this theory, surely lesser men are obliged to
suspend judgment, and render the Scotch verdict of "not proven."
Whatever truth there may be in the theory will survive, and be
incorporated into the final solution of the problem; which solution
will be a much grander generalization of the human mind than the
nebular hypothesis.
[Page 189]
Of some things we feel very sure: that matter was once without
form and void, and darkness rested on the face of the mighty deeps;
that, instead of chaos, we have now cosmos and beauty; and that
there is some process by which matter has been brought from one
state to the other. Whether, however, the nebular hypothesis lays
down the road travelled to this transfiguration, we are not sure.
Some of it seems like solid rock, and some like shifting quicksand.
Doubtless there is a road from that chaos to this fair cosmos.
The nebular hypothesis has surveyed, worked, and perfected many
long reaches of this road, but the rivers are not bridged, the
chasms not filled, nor the mountains tunnelled.
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