x THE STARRY HEAVENS 395 



SATURN 



Next to Jupiter in size, as in position, 

 comes Saturn, which, though far inferior in 

 dimensions, is much superior in beauty. To 

 the naked eye Saturn appears as a brilliant 

 star, but when Galileo first saw it through a 

 telescope it appeared to him to be composed 

 of three bodies in a line, a central globe with 

 a small one on each side. Huyghens in 1655 



Fig. 53. Saturn. 



first showed that in reality Saturn was sur- 

 rounded by a series of rings (see Fig. 53). 

 Of these there are three, the inner one very 

 faint, and the outer one divided into two by 

 a dark line. These rings are really enormous 

 shoals of minute bodies revolving round the 

 planet, and rendering it perhaps the most 



