ASTEROIDS

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2264, 25 September 1914, Page 7

ASTEROIDS

.LECTURE BY PROF. E. W. BROWN. ■ At Victoria College last night Di\ E. W. Brown, Professor of 'Mathematics at Yale University, delivered his second lecture on "Asteroids," under' the auspices of the Wellington Philosophical Society. Dr. C. M. Hector (president) occupied the chair. Dr. Brown talked in an interesting manner of the solar system, including >the comets which circled round the sun, ( and had to bs included in tho solar' system. The planots were atdiffereut distances from the sun, ranging from Mercury, 36 millions of miles away, to Neptune, 28 hundred millions of miles. At tho present time about 720 asteroids were known, and more wero being discovered every day. They are extremely small in diameter, ranging from ten miles to 300 or '100 miles. . The gravitation on tlieni was so slight, said tho lecturer, that if you placed' a fly on one, cut olf tho 'fly's wings and asked'it to jump, it would have no chanco of getting back to the. asteroid. The majority wero erratic in thoir orbits, but it was unlikely that there would bo a collision. Saturn's rings, pointed out Dr. Brown, had been discovered to be composed of masses of small stones, each revolving on its own axis. Tho lecturer answered a number of questions in conclusion, and was accorded a hearty vote of thanks.