THE PLANET SATURN.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 333, 21 October 1908, Page 13

THE PLANET SATURN.

RINCS GOINC TO PIECES. BEWILDERING ACTIVITIES. Suppose that tho earth were surrounded above the Equator with a system of several vast concentric rings, very broad in propor-' tion'to their thiokness, and composed of an innumerable multitude of small bodies, each moving independently of all the others, like wijd pigeons in. a flight, or like bees in a swarm. And supposo, moreover,' that these bodies were continually coming into collision with one another, ■ and consequently being forced, some of them, to- descend towards the earth, arid others to move outwards into space'. Thoso which descended would eventually fall upon the earth, and if thoir number were sufficiently great this would form a rain' of meteorites, falling along tho fine of the Equator. Those which were driven outward, on tho contrary, would tend finally to consolidate into satellites, and.thus the earth would-havo a constantly increasing flock of little moons attending it. - Now, this strange condition of things appears on Saturn, according to the latest observations reported by Professor Garrett P. Serviss. The famous rings of that planet havo been well known suico the timo of Galileo, and they have given rise to many ; speculations, they are 'a unique phenomenon, whose like is not to be seen elsewhere, in. the ..heavens. That they wero undergoing changes has long been regarded as certain, but the evidence that they are oventually to disappear has never beforo been made so clear. For the telescopic observer the disappearance df Saturn's rings woulcl be the removal of the most remarkable "show" object in tho sky. In the light of the recent observations, the rings of Saturn become the scene of the most bewildering activities. That planet has ten known moons situatod at various distances beyond the rings. Not only is it probable that some of the nearer of these moons havo been created from the rings, but the moons, in turn, react upon the rings and distort them by tidal action. Creation's Unexplored Chaptor. These billions of little bodies, pouring in vast streams around tho great planet, feel at the same time the strain of the. attraction' of ; the gigantic central globe, the disturbing pulls of tho ten moons outside, and the forces that they exert upon :olsS)' Ato of unendifig-SagiitiltiQnaiKey. 'Useift series of three or four armies marching rapidly in parallel circles,- but continually in disorder internally,-v-tho-«-members-'jostling,;.-pushing, pulling, contending; /and crossing; the gaps between the lines—a scene more disordorly than the march.'of the disorganised Huns devastating the torritory of an enemy and struggling with'one another for the booty. Such a . spectacle ■ of vast confusion, if one could watch it near : by, would overwhelm the observer with dismay. It would seem to him as if the universe were in a jumble and falling to pieces. And yet, closer observation would show that, after all, law reigns among the disorderly masses. The meteoric tides regularly swell and recede, the jostling' bodies meet and part and go on their way, tho greater number continue to circle in their orbits, though following crooked and staggering paths, while some continually escape into outer space to ' join the moons, and others travel inwards to become aerolites descending upon the planet. Some think" that the earth onco had a similar, though far less extensive, entourage of rings, which long ago disappeared, leaving their marks on the one .hand in tho form of the huge, meteors found scattered over the globe, and on the other hand in the countloss cavities that pit the surface of the moon. It is a comparatively new and unexplored chapter in the history of creation. The now rare phenomenon of a great bolide, shooting out. of the ' sky, blinding the ' spectator with its sudden blaze, and bursting as it falls, is but a weak image, a bare suggestion, of that ancient spectacle which was on view—when,. if it ever occurred—tho earth's rings were falling to pieces, as tho incomparably grander rings of Saturn certainly seem to be doing at the present time. > All of the planets that have moons—Morcury and Vonus alone havo none—probably were onco surrounded by meteoric rings. Why Saturn's rings should havo continued to exist so much longer than any of tho others is a question not easy to answer, but it may possibly be connected with the fact that Saturn is by far the least dense of all the bodies belonging to tho solar system. Its moan density, is less than three-quarters a3 great as that of water.—Science Sittings.