COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



Let us note that the tangential momentum 

 lost by the planet is lost only relatively to its 

 distance from the sun. As the planet draws 

 nearer to the sun, its lost tangential momentum 

 is replaced, and somewhat more than replaced, 

 by the added velocity due to the increased grav- 

 itative force exerted by the sun at the shorter 

 distance. But this newly added momentum is 

 all needed to maintain the planet at its new dis- 

 tance from the central mass, and can never be 

 available to carry it back to the old distance. 

 It is thus that Encke's comet moves more and 

 more rapidly as it approaches the sun, into which 

 it appears to be soon destined to be drawn. 

 For these reasons the earth, which now moves 

 at the rate of 18 miles per second, would at- 

 tain a velocity of 379 miles per second when 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of the solar 

 mass. Hence when at last the planet strikes 

 the sun, it must strike it with tremendous force. 

 In a collision of this sort, the heat generated by 

 the earth and sun alone would suffice to pro- 

 duce a temperature of nearly nine million de- 

 grees Fahrenheit. Without pursuing the argu- 

 ment into further detail, it is obvious that the 

 integration of the whole solar system, after tnis 

 fashion, would be followed by the complete 

 disintegration of the matter of which it is con- 

 stituted. After the reunion of the planets with 



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