48 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
same line, its direction will be changed, and the body will move along the result- 
ant line. So it was with the nebulous patches that afterward became planets 
or satellites; but those that failed to materialize as planets or satellites, as well 
as the comets that were not transformed into cometary satellites or meteoric 
swarms, escaped from our system, and so doing left their impress upon some of 
the members of the solar system, as in the case of the moons of Uranus and 
Neptune. Their size and number would find better conditions for producing 
anomalous results on ‘those far distant fields of space than their diminished size - 
and number would find hundreds of millions of miles nearer the center of the 
nebulous mass about waich all were revolving. 
The disturbing force, however great, that was exerted by them was not power- 
ful enough to draw the satellites away from the grip of their primaries. Suppose 
some great attracting force should appear in the midst of, or near to, the Jovian 
system: At once the moons of that planet would be more or less disturbed ; their 
movements would be radically changed, or Jupiter might lose them altogether. 
A comet of immense size, such as Laplace suggested as a possibility, might even 
destroy the mechanism of the Jovian system entirely. The same may be said both 
of the Saturnian system and the Earth-Moon system. 
There lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter a belt of tiny planets, the 
so-called asteroids, of which more than 400 have been discovered, and to the list 
of which new ones are added every year. Whether they came into existence, 
each as an independent body, or all were formed originally out of the nebula asa 
single planet, like the Earth or Mars, and then by a series of explosions. first of 
the planet itself, and then of the fragments as they were hurled in various direc- 
tions into space; or still in the form of a planet, it was struck by some immense 
body on its way through the solar system from the depths of space —a comet or 
other unknown visitor—it matters not. Some of these little bodies have great 
eccentricity of orbit. Liberatrix, the 125th of the asteroids, discovered by Pro- 
fessor Henry in 1872, is, when nearest the Sun, 184 millions of miles distant from 
that luminary, and when farthest the distance is increased to 389 millions, mak- 
ing the longest axis of its orbit vastly greater than its shortest. AJthra, 132d, 
discovered by Watson in 1873, is a little over 149 millions of miles distant when 
nearest the Sun, and 333 millions of miles when farthest away. The longest axis 
of AXthra is at least 184 millions of miles longer than its shortest. 
The inclination of the orbit of Aithra to the plane of the ecliptic is 25°, a little 
greater than the Earth’s obliquity. Now, when Mars is nearest to the Earth, at 
the time of its most favorable opposition, the planet is distant from the Sun 128 
millions of miles, and when farthest from the Sun, Mars is 154 millions of miles 
distant. But the inclination of the orbit of Mars to the plane of the ecliptic 
differs considerably from that of the asteroid Afthra. Let us compare the dis- 
tance of Mars when farthest from the Sun with the distance of AUthra when 
nearest the Sun and ascertain if possible the probable results of such an investi- 
gation. The following table of measurements of the orbit of Mars, as given by 
Holden, and the corresponding one for the asteroid 4thra, compiled by Mr. D. 
P. Todd, of Amherst College, will assist in reaching a conclusion: 
Nearest the Sun, Mars is 128 millions of miles distant; Aithra 149 millions. 
Farthest from the Sun, Mars is 154 millions of miles distant; Afthra 333 millions. 
Eccentricity of orbit of Mars is .093; of Authra, .38. Inclination of orbit of Mars 
is 1° 51's of Althra, 25°. 
The great eccentricity of the orbit of AZthra as compared with that of Mars, 
taken in connection with the nearest distance of A®thra to the Sun and that of 
Mars when farthest, will show that if the two orbits were in the same plane that 
