THE EXTENSION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM BEYOND 



NEPTUNE. AND THE CONNECTION EXISTING 



BETWEEN PLANETS AND COMETS. 



Bv T. J. J. SEE. 

 (Read April 21, 1911.) 



One of the most remarkable results of the writer's recent 

 researches on the origin of the solar system has consisted in the 

 development of a satisfactory proof that the primordial nuclei of 

 the planets were formed at great distances from the sun, and that 

 their primitive orbits were highly eccentric like those now described 

 by the comets ; so that in the last analysis it is shown that the two 

 classes of bodies are merged together, or rather that the planets 

 have been built up by the agglomeration of cosmical dust, in the 

 form of comets, and other fragments of matter, from our ancient 

 nebula. The following is a brief outline of the thread of argument 

 leading to this conclusion : 



1. It is shown by the exact data supplied by Babinet's criterion 

 that not one of our planets could have been thrown off from the 

 sun, by acceleration of rotation, as imagined by Laplace in 1796, but 

 that the nuclei must have started in the distance and since neared the 

 sun, by insensible degrees, as the masses were gradually augmented 

 by precipitations from the surrounding nebular medium. 



2. When it was thus demonstrated by exact calculation that the 

 premise handed down by Laplace is erroneous, our theory of 

 planetary genesis was placed on a new basis by the proof that the 

 roundness of planetary orbits is due to the secular action of a 

 resisting medium, which has reduced the size of the planetary orbits 

 and rendered them almost exactly circular. 



3. In order to be so exactly circular, as they are now found to be, 

 these orbits must originally have been very large, and also highly 

 eccentric, like the orbits of comets ; the orbits accordingly have been 

 reduced in size by encounters with the other minor bodies, the 



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