1016 Dynamic Theory. 



soon convert the spheroidal shell into a ring. These operations would 

 tend to produce in different parts of the ring, regions of unequal dens- 

 it}% the denser parts becoming nuclei, toward which the others would be 

 attracted; that is while all parts of the ring were rapidly pursuing their 

 way around their orbit, the distances apart of the condensed nuclei in 

 the ring would not remain the same, and in the course of time the 

 principal part of the matter of the ring might be absorbed in the form- 

 ation of a single globe or planet. This globe might then repeat the ex- 

 ample of the body from which it was formed, and thus cast off one or 

 more shells which, passing through the same process form themselves 

 into secondary globes or satellites. 



Or the great ring, instead of becoming consolidated into a single 

 globe, might become formed into numerous nuclei which all continue to 

 revolve about the central sun independently of each other, forming thus 

 a number of globes. 



Or the ring might remain homogeneous and not form nuclei at all but 

 gradually become contracted into dense matter, still preserving its annu- 

 lar shape. On the supposition that our solar system has been formed 

 from the matter cooling gradually from an incandescent condition, nine 

 of these gaseous shells have been formed in succession, the outer one 

 comprising the material from which the planet Neptune and his moon 

 were formed, the second one being that of Uranus, the third Saturn, 

 the fourth Jupiter, the fifth the Asteroids, then in succession, Mars, 

 Earth, Venus, and Mercury. In the cases of all the planets, except 

 the asteroids, the shell became a globe; and in the cases of all except 

 Venus and Mercury, these globes each threw off secondaries or satellites 

 as follows: the Earth one, Mars two, Jupiter five, Saturn eight, 

 Uranus four, Neptune one. Where a planet has more than one satellite, 

 they are at different distances from their primaries as the planets them- 

 selves are from the sun. Besides his eight moons Saturn has two enor- 

 mous rings; that is, Saturn has thrown off ten rings in all, and the 

 outer eight of them have become globes, while the inner two have 

 remained rings which have become exceedingly flat and thin. The ring 

 thrown off by the sun between the orbit of Mars and that of Jupiter did 

 not become formed into a single globe like the rest, but in cooling off 

 collected around a vast number of nuclei which, instead of consolidat- 

 ing into one, have remained separate and independent. Two hundred 

 and forty or more have been discovered, the largest being 1,400 miles in 

 diameter, and the smallest probably less than a dozen, and there are no 

 doubt thousands still smaller. The great width of the ring is shown by 

 the fact that the distances of these planets from the sun range all the 

 way from 210, 000, 000 to 300,000,000 of miles, showing the ring to 

 have been at least ninety millions of miles in thickness from its inner 

 to its outer edge. 



