360 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



THE ASTEROIDS. 



MR. CARRINGTON, an English astronomer, has lately computed 

 with much care the positions of the orbits of all the small planets, 

 with relation to two planes at right angles to the ecliptic and to one 

 another, and has constructed a model representing them all. This 

 has brought to light a remarkable relation hitherto unobserved. 



All the orbits are so arranged, both in reference to their planes and 

 the position of their points of perihelion, that they approach very 

 nearly to one another in about heliocentric longitude 185. This was 

 made out for the first twelve planets before the discovery of Egeria ; 

 and her orbit conforms to the rule in a very remarkable manner, her 

 path coming down abruptly to the point of concourse as that of Pallas 

 rises still more abruptly from the same region of space. Whether 

 this relation may exist or not for planets still to be discovered, or 

 should fail, it must have a marked influence on the perturbations of 

 those planets, and may lead to remarkable consequences in the theory 

 of their physical connection. Jameson's Journal, April. 



Symbolical Notation of the Asteroids. On account of the incon- 

 venience resulting from the present arbitrary symbols for the large 

 family of small planets between Mars and Jupiter, it has been agreed 

 upon by several astronomers in Germany, France, England, and 

 America, to propose for adoption a more simple system for this group, 

 viz : a circle containing the number of the planet in the order of its 

 discovery. Astronomical Journal. 



New Theory of the Origin of the Asteroids. Mr. Nasmyth at the 

 British Asssociation brought forward the following view respecting the 

 origin of the Asteroids. " As the progress of science is frequently 

 aided by advancing hypothetical views in explanation of the cause of 

 certain phenomena, I hazard a suggestion as to the cause of the 

 breaking up of the original planet, whose fragments it has been con- 

 jectured, form that numerous and remarkable group of small planets 

 revolving between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter ; some peculiarities 

 of whose path have led to the supposition that they must have parted 

 company from a parent mass at the same time and place. In order to 

 render my views on the subject, more clear, I would refer to the well 

 known toy called a ' Prince Rupert's drop ;' namely, a drop of glass 

 which has been let fall while in a semi-fluid state, into water, by which 

 the surface of the glass drop is caused to cool and consolidate so rapidly, 

 that the subsequent consolidation and contraction of the interior mass 

 induces such a high degree of tension between it and the exterior 

 crust that the slightest vibration is sufficient to overcome the cohesion 

 of the external crust, and by so letting free the state of tension to 

 cause the glass drop to fly into thousands of fragments. Nor is the 

 action confined to ' Rupert's drop,' as we have examples of the same 

 action in our foundery apparatus, in the case of masses of brittle 

 metal, when the exterior of the casting first consolidating, (as it always 

 does before the interior,) the after contraction of the interior of the 

 mass induces a sort of ' touch and go' state of tension, which frequently 



