A Text-Book of Astronomy Part 16

55.6m., while a broad stream along the equator flows eastward some 270 miles per hour, and thus comes back to the center of the planet, as seen from the earth, five or six minutes earlier than the parts which do not share in this motion. Judged by terrestrial standards, 270 miles per hour is a great velocity, but Jupiter is constructed on a colossal scale, and, too, we have to compare this movement, not to a current flowing in the ocean, but to a wind blowing in the upper regions of the earth's atmosphere. The visible surface of Jupiter is only the top of a cloud formation, and contains nothing solid or permanent, if indeed there is anything solid even at the core of the planet. The great red spot during the first dozen years of its existence, instead of remaining fixed relative to the surrounding formations, drifted two thirds of the way around the planet, and having come to a standstill about 1891, it is now slowly retracing its path.

139. PHYSICAL CONDITION.--For a better understanding of the physical condition of Jupiter, we have now to consider some independent lines of evidence which agree in pointing to the conclusion that Jupiter, although cla.s.sed with the earth as a planet, is in its essential character much more like the sun.

_Appearance._--The formations which we see in Fig. 87 look like clouds.

They gather and disappear, and the only element of permanence about them is their tendency to group themselves along zones of lat.i.tude. If we measure the light reflected from the planet we find that its albedo is very high, like that of snow or our own c.u.mulus clouds, and it is of course greater from the light parts of the disk than from the darker bands. The spectroscope shows that the sunlight reflected from these darker belts is like that reflected from the lighter parts, save that a larger portion of the blue and violet rays has been absorbed out of it, thus producing the ruddy tint of the belts, as sunset colors are produced on the earth, and showing that here the light has penetrated farther into the planet's atmosphere before being thrown back by reflection from lower-lying cloud surfaces. The dark bands are therefore to be regarded as rifts in the clouds, reaching down to some considerable distance and indicating an atmosphere of great depth. The great red spot, 28,000 miles long, and obviously thrusting back the white clouds on every side of it, year after year, can hardly be a mere patch on the face of the planet, but indicates some considerable depth of atmosphere.

_Density._--So, too, the small mean density of the planet, only 1.3 times that of water and actually less than the density of the sun, suggests that the larger part of the planet's bulk may be made of gases and clouds, with very little solid matter even at the center; but here we get into a difficulty from which there seems but one escape. The force of gravity at the visible surface of Jupiter may be found from its ma.s.s and dimensions to be 2.6 times as great as at the surface of the earth, and the pressure exerted upon its atmosphere by this force ought to compress the lower strata into something more dense than we find in the planet. Some idea of this compression may be obtained from Fig. 88, where the line marked _E_ shows approximately how the density of the air increases as we move from its upper strata down toward the surface of the earth through a distance of 16 miles, the density at any level being proportional to the distance of the curved line from the straight one near it. The line marked _J_ in the same figure shows how the density would increase if the force of gravity were as great here as it is in Jupiter, and indicates a much greater rate of increase. Starting from the upper surface of the cloud in Jupiter's atmosphere, if we descend, not 16 miles, but 1,600 or 16,000, what must the density of the atmosphere become and how is this to be reconciled with what we know to be the very small mean density of the planet?

We are here in a dilemma between density on the one hand and the effects of gravity on the other, and the only escape from it lies in the a.s.sumption that the interior of Jupiter is tremendously hot, and that this heat expands the substance of the planet in spite of the pressure to which it is subject, making a large planet with a low density, possibly gaseous at the very center, but in its outer part surrounded by a sh.e.l.l of clouds condensed from the gases by radiating their heat into the cold of outer s.p.a.ce.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 88.--Increase of density in the atmospheres of Jupiter and the earth.]

This is essentially the same physical condition that we found for the sun, and we may add, as further points of resemblance between it and Jupiter, that there seems to be a circulation of matter from the hot interior of the planet to its cooler surface that is more p.r.o.nounced in the southern hemisphere than in the northern, and that has its periods of maximum and minimum activity, which, curiously enough, seem to coincide with periods of maximum and minimum sun-spot development. Of this, however, we can not be entirely sure, since it is only in recent years that it has been studied with sufficient care, and further observations are required to show whether the agreement is something more than an accidental and short-lived coincidence.

_Temperature._--The temperature of Jupiter must, of course, be much lower than that of the sun, since the surface which we see is not luminous like the sun's; but below the clouds it is not improbable that Jupiter may be incandescent, white hot, and it is surmised with some show of probability that a little of its light escapes through the clouds from time to time, and helps to produce the striking brilliancy with which this planet s.h.i.+nes.

140. THE SATELLITES OF JUPITER.--The satellites bear much the same relation to Jupiter that the moon bears to the earth, revolving about the planet in accordance with the law of gravitation, and conforming to Kepler's three laws, as do the planets in their courses about the sun.

Observe in Fig. 86 the position of satellite No. _1_ on the four dates, and note how it oscillates back and forth from left to right of Jupiter, apparently making a complete revolution in about two days, while No. _4_ moves steadily from left to right during the entire period, and has evidently made only a fraction of a revolution in the time covered by the pictures. This quicker motion, of course, means that No. _1_ is nearer to Jupiter than No. _4_, and the numbers given to the satellites show the order of their distances from the planet. The peculiar way in which the satellites are grouped, always standing nearly in a straight line, shows that their orbits must lie nearly in the same plane, and that this plane, which is also the plane of the planets' equator, is turned edgewise toward the earth.

These satellites enjoy the distinction of being the first objects ever discovered with the telescope, having been found by Galileo almost immediately after its invention, A. D. 1610. It is quite possible that before this time they may have been seen with the naked eye, for in more recent years reports are current that they have been seen under favorable circ.u.mstances by sharp-eyed persons, and very little telescopic aid is required to show them. Look for them with an opera or field gla.s.s. They bear the names Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, which, however, are rarely used, and, following the custom of astronomers, we shall designate them by the Roman numerals I, II, III, IV.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 89.--Orbits of Jupiter's satellites.]

For nearly three centuries (1610 to 1892) astronomers spoke of the four satellites of Jupiter; but in September, 1892, a fifth one was added to the number by Professor Barnard, who, observing with the largest telescope then extant, found very close to Jupiter a tiny object only 1/600 part as bright as the other satellites, but, like them, revolving around Jupiter, a permanent member of his system. This is called the fifth satellite, and Fig. 89 shows the orbits of these satellites around Jupiter, which is here represented on the same scale as the orbits themselves. The broken line just inside the orbit of I represents the size of the moon's...o...b..t. The cut shows also the periodic times of the satellites expressed in days, and furnishes in this respect a striking ill.u.s.tration of the great ma.s.s of Jupiter. Satellite I is a little farther from Jupiter than is the moon from the earth, but under the influence of a greater attraction it makes the circuit of its...o...b..t in 1.77 days, instead of taking 29.53 days, as does the moon. Determine from the figure by the method employed in -- 111 how much more ma.s.sive is Jupiter than the earth.

Small as these satellites seem in Fig. 86, they are really bodies of considerable size, as appears from Fig. 90, where their dimensions are compared with those of the earth and moon, save that the fifth satellite is not included. This one is so small as to escape all attempts at measuring its diameter, but, judging from the amount of light it reflects, the period printed with the legend of the figure represents a gross exaggeration of this satellite's size.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 90.--Jupiter's satellites compared with the earth and moon.]

Like the moon, each of these satellites may fairly be considered a world in itself, and as such a fitting object of detailed study, but, unfortunately, their great distance from us makes it impossible, even with the most powerful telescope, to see more upon their surfaces than occasional vague markings, which hardly suffice to show the rotations of the satellites upon their axes.

One striking feature, however, comes out from a study of their influence in disturbing each other's motion about Jupiter. Their ma.s.ses and the resulting densities of the satellites are smaller than we should have expected to find, the density being less than that of the moon, and averaging only a little greater than the density of Jupiter itself. At the surface of the third satellite the force of gravity is but little less than on the moon, although the moon's density is nearly twice as great as that of III, and there can be no question here of accounting for the low density through expansion by great heat, as in the case of the sun and Jupiter. It has been surmised that these satellites are not solid bodies, like the earth and moon, but only shoals of rock and stone, loosely piled together and kept from packing into a solid ma.s.s by the action of Jupiter in raising tides within them. But the explanation can hardly be regarded as an accepted article of astronomical belief, although it is supported by some observations which tend to show that the apparent shapes of the satellites change under the influence of the tidal forces impressed upon them.

141. ECLIPSES OF THE SATELLITES.--It may be seen from Fig. 89 that in their motion around the planet Jupiter's satellites must from time to time pa.s.s through his shadow and be eclipsed, and that the shadows of the satellites will occasionally fall upon the planet, producing to an observer upon Jupiter an eclipse of the sun, but to an observer on the earth presenting only the appearance of a round black spot moving slowly across the face of the planet. Occasionally also a satellite will pa.s.s exactly between the earth and Jupiter, and may be seen projected against the planet as a background. All of these phenomena are duly predicted and observed by astronomers, but the eclipses are the only ones we need consider here. The importance of these eclipses was early recognized, and astronomers endeavored to construct a theory of their recurrence which would permit accurate predictions of them to be made. But in this they met with no great success, for while it was easy enough to foretell on what night an eclipse of a given satellite would occur, and even to a.s.sign the hour of the night, it was not possible to make the predicted minute agree with the actual time of eclipse until after Roemer, a Danish astronomer of the seventeenth century, found where lay the trouble. His discovery was, that whenever the earth was on the side of its...o...b..t toward Jupiter the eclipses really occurred before the predicted time, and when the earth was on the far side of its...o...b..t they came a few minutes later than the predicted time. He correctly inferred that this was to be explained, not by any influence which the earth exerted upon Jupiter and his satellites, but through the fact that the light by which we see the satellite and its eclipse requires an appreciable time to cross the intervening s.p.a.ce, and a longer time when the earth is far from Jupiter than when it is near.

For half a century Roemer's views found little credence, but we know now that he was right, and that on the average the eclipses come 8m. 18s.

early when the earth is nearest to Jupiter, and 8m. 18s. late when it is on the opposite side of its...o...b..t. This is equivalent to saying that light takes 8m. 18s. to cover the distance from the sun to the earth, so that at any moment we see the sun not as it then is, but as it was 8 minutes earlier. It has been found possible in recent years to measure by direct experiment the velocity with which light travels--186,337 miles per second--and multiplying this number by the 498s. (= 8m. 18s.) we obtain a new determination of the sun's distance from the earth. The product of the two numbers is 92,795,826, in very fair agreement with the 93,000,000 miles found in Chapter X; but, as noted there, this method, like every other, has its weak side, and the result may be a good many thousands of miles in error.

It is worthy of note in this connection that both methods of obtaining the sun's distance which were given in Chapter X involve Kepler's Third Law, while the result obtained from Jupiter's satellites is entirely independent of this law, and the agreement of the several results is therefore good evidence both for the truth of Kepler's laws and for the soundness of Roemer's explanation of the eclipses. This mode of proof, by comparing the numerical results furnished by two or more different principles, and showing that they agree or disagree, is of wide application and great importance in physical science.

SATURN

142. THE RING OF SATURN.--In respect of size and ma.s.s Saturn stands next to Jupiter, and although far inferior to him in these respects, it contains more material than all the remaining planets combined. But the unique feature of Saturn which distinguishes it from every other known body in the heavens is its ring, which was long a puzzle to the astronomers who first studied the planet with a telescope (one of them called Saturn a planet with ears), but, was after nearly half a century correctly understood and described by Huyghens, whose Latin text we translate into--"It is surrounded by a ring, thin, flat, nowhere touching it, and making quite an angle with the ecliptic."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 91.--Aspects of Saturn's rings.]

Compare with this description Fig. 91, which shows some of the appearances presented by the ring at different positions of Saturn in its...o...b..t. It was their varying aspects that led Huyghens to insert the last words of his description, for, if the plane of the ring coincided with the plane of the earth's...o...b..t, then at all times the ring must be turned edgewise toward the earth, as shown in the middle picture of the group. Fig. 92 shows the sun and the orbit of the earth placed near the center of Saturn's...o...b..t, across whose circ.u.mference are ruled some oblique lines representing the plane of the ring, the right end always tilted up, no matter where the planet is in its...o...b..t. It is evident that an observer upon the earth will see the _N_ side of the ring when the planet is at _N_ and the _S_ side when it is at _S_, as is shown in the first and third pictures of Fig. 91, while midway between these positions the edge of the ring will be presented to the earth.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 92.--Aspects of the ring in their relation to Saturn's...o...b..tal motion.]

The last occasion of this kind was in October, 1891, and with the large telescope of the Washburn Observatory the writer at that time saw Saturn without a trace of a ring surrounding it. The ring is so thin that it disappears altogether when turned edgewise. The names of the zodiacal constellations are inserted in Fig. 92 in their proper direction from the sun, and from these we learn that the ring will disappear, or be exceedingly narrow, whenever Saturn is in the constellation Pisces or near the boundary line between Leo and Virgo. It will be broad and show its northern side when Saturn is in Scorpius or Sagittarius, and its southern face when the planet is in Gemini. What will be its appearance in 1907 at the date marked in the figure?

143. NATURE OF THE RING.--It is apparent from Figs. 91 and 93 that Saturn's ring is really made up of two or more rings lying one inside of the other and completely separated by a dark s.p.a.ce which, though narrow, is as clean and sharp as if cut with a knife. Also, the inner edge of the ring fades off into an obscure border called the _dusky ring_ or _c.r.a.pe ring_. This requires a pretty good telescope to show it, as may be inferred from the fact that it escaped notice for more than two centuries during which the planet was a.s.siduously studied with telescopes, and was discovered at the Harvard College Observatory as recently as 1850.

Although the rings appear oval in all of the pictures, this is mainly an effect of perspective, and they are in fact nearly circular with the planet at their center. The extreme diameter of the ring is 172,000 miles, and from this number, by methods already explained (Chapter IX), the student should obtain the width of the rings, their distance from the ball of the planet, and the diameter of the ball. As to thickness, it is evident, from the disappearance of the ring when its edge is turned toward the earth, that it is very thin in comparison with its diameter, probably not more than 100 miles thick, although no exact measurement of this can be made.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 93.--Saturn.]

From theoretical reasons based upon the law of gravitation astronomers have held that the rings of Saturn could not possibly be solid or liquid bodies. The strains impressed upon them by the planet's attraction would tear into fragments steel rings made after their size and shape. Quite recently Professor Keeler has shown, by applying the spectroscope (Doppler's principle) to determine the velocity of the ring's rotation about Saturn, that the inner parts of the ring move, as Kepler's Third Law requires, more rapidly than do the outer parts, thus furnis.h.i.+ng a direct proof that they are not solid, and leaving no doubt that they are made up of separate fragments, each moving about the planet in its own orbit, like an independent satellite, but standing so close to its neighbors that the whole s.p.a.ce reflects the sunlight as completely as if it were solid. With this understanding of the rings it is easy to see why they are so thin. Like Jupiter, Saturn is greatly flattened at the poles, and this flattening, or rather the protuberant ma.s.s about the equator, lays hold of every satellite near the planet and exerts upon it a direct force tending to thrust it down into the plane of the planet's equator and hold it there. The ring lies in the plane of Saturn's equator because each particle is constrained to move there.

The division of the ring into two parts, an outer and an inner ring, is usually explained as follows: Saturn is surrounded by a numerous brood of satellites, which by their attractions produce perturbations in the material composing the rings, and the dividing line between the outer and inner rings falls at the place where by the law of gravitation the perturbations would have their greatest effect. The dividing line between the rings is therefore a narrow lane, 2,400 miles wide, from which the fragments have been swept clean away by the perturbing action of the satellites. Less conspicuous divisions are seen from time to time in other parts of the ring, where the perturbations, though less, are still appreciable. But it is open to some question whether this explanation is sufficient.

The curious darkness of the inner or c.r.a.pe ring is easily explained.

The particles composing it are not packed together so closely as in the outer ring, and therefore reflect less sunlight. Indeed, so spa.r.s.ely strewn are the particles in this ring that it is in great measure transparent to the sunlight, as is shown by a recorded observation of one of the satellites which was distinctly although faintly seen while moving through the shadow of the dark ring, but disappeared in total eclipse when it entered the shadow cast by the bright ring.

144. THE BALL OF SATURN.--The ball of the planet is in most respects a smaller copy of Jupiter. With an equatorial diameter of 76,000 miles, a polar diameter of 69,000 miles, and a ma.s.s 95 times that of the earth, its density is found to be the least of any planet in the solar system, only 0.70 of the density of water, and about one half as great as is the density of Jupiter. The force of gravity at its surface is only a little greater (1.18) than on the earth; and this, in connection with the low density, leads, as in the case of Jupiter, to the conclusion that the planet must be mainly composed of gases and vapors, very hot within, but inclosed by a sh.e.l.l of clouds which cuts off their glow from our eyes.

Like Jupiter in another respect, the planet turns very swiftly upon its axis, making a revolution in 10 hours 14 minutes, but up to the present it remains unknown whether different parts of the surface have different rotation times.

145. THE SATELLITES.--Saturn is attended by a family of nine satellites, a larger number than belongs to any other planet, but with one exception they are exceedingly small and difficult to observe save with a very large telescope. Indeed, the latest one is said to have been discovered in 1898 by means of the image which it impressed upon a photographic plate, and it has never been _seen_.

t.i.tan, the largest of them, is distant 771,000 miles from the planet and bears much the same relation to Saturn that Satellite III bears to Jupiter, the similarity in distance, size and ma.s.s being rather striking, although, of course, the smaller ma.s.s of Saturn as compared with Jupiter makes the periodic time of t.i.tan--15 days 23 hours--much greater than that of III. Can you apply Kepler's Third Law to the motion of t.i.tan so as to determine from the data given above, the time required for a particle at the outer or inner edge of the ring to revolve once around Saturn?

j.a.petus, the second satellite in point of size, whose distance from Saturn is about ten times as great as the moon's distance from the earth, presents the remarkable peculiarity of being always brighter in one part of its...o...b..t than in another, three or four times as bright when west of Saturn as when east of it. This probably indicates that, like our own moon, the satellite turns always the same face toward its planet, and further, that one side of the satellite reflects the sunlight much better than the other side--i. e., has a higher albedo.

With these two a.s.sumptions it is easily seen that the satellite will always turn toward the earth one face when west, and the other face when east of Saturn, and thus give the observed difference of brightness.

URa.n.u.s AND NEPTUNE

146. CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS.--The two remaining large planets are interesting chiefly as modern additions to the known members of the sun's family. The circ.u.mstances leading to the discovery of Neptune have been touched upon in Chapter IV, and for Ura.n.u.s we need only note that it was found by accident in the year 1781 by William Herschel, who for some time after the discovery considered it to be only a comet. It was the first planet ever discovered, all of its predecessors having been known from prehistoric times.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WILLIAM HERSCHEL (1738-1822).]

Ura.n.u.s has four satellites, all of them very faint, which present only one feature of special importance. Instead of moving in orbits which are approximately parallel to the plane of the ecliptic, as do the satellites of the inner planets, their orbit planes are tipped up nearly perpendicular to the planes of the orbits of both Ura.n.u.s and the earth.

The one satellite which Neptune possesses has the same peculiarity in even greater degree, for its motion around the planet takes place in the direction opposite to that in which all the planets move around the sun, much as if the orbit of the satellite had been tipped over through an angle of 150. Turn a watch face down and note how the hands go round in the direction opposite to that in which they moved before the face was turned through 180.

Both Ura.n.u.s and Neptune are too distant to allow much detail to be seen upon their surfaces, but the presence of broad absorption bands in their spectra shows that they must possess dense atmospheres quite different in const.i.tution from the atmosphere of the earth. In respect of density and the force of gravity at their surfaces, they are not very unlike Saturn, although their density is greater and gravity less than his, leading to the supposition that they are for the most part gaseous bodies, but cooler and probably more nearly solid than either Jupiter or Saturn.

Under favorable circ.u.mstances Ura.n.u.s may be seen with the naked eye by one who knows just where to look for it. Neptune is never visible save in a telescope.

147. THE INNER PLANETS.--In sharp contrast with the giant planets which we have been considering stands the group of four inner planets, or five if we count the moon as an independent body, which resemble each other in being all small, dense, and solid bodies, which by comparison with the great distances separating the outer planets may fairly be described as huddled together close to the sun. Their relative sizes are shown in Fig. 84, together with the numerical data concerning size, ma.s.s, density, etc., which we have already found important for the understanding of a planet's physical condition.

VENUS

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 94.--The phases of Venus.--ANTONIADI.]

148. APPEARANCE.--Omitting the earth, Venus is by far the most conspicuous member of this group, and when at its brightest is, with exception of the sun and moon, the most brilliant object in the sky, and may be seen with the naked eye in broad daylight if the observer knows just where to look for it. But its brilliancy is subject to considerable variations on account of its changing distance from the earth, and the apparent size of its disk varies for the same reason, as may be seen from Fig. 94. These drawings bring out well the phases of the planet, and the student should determine from Fig. 17 what are the relative positions in their orbits of the earth and Venus at which the planet would present each of these phases. As a guide to this, observe that the dark part of Venus's earthward side is always proportional in area to the angle at Venus between the earth and sun. In the first picture of Fig. 94 about two thirds of the surface corresponding to the full hemisphere of the planet is dark, and the angle at Venus between earth and sun is therefore two thirds of 180--i. e., 120. In Fig. 17 find a place on the orbit of Venus from which if lines be drawn to the sun and earth, as there shown, the angle between them will be 120. Make a similar construction for the fourth picture in Fig. 94. Which of these two positions is farther from the earth? How do the distances compare with the apparent size of Venus in the two pictures? What is the phase of Venus to-day?