58 



Solar and Planet" ry Evolution. 



which was made to throw off concentric rings of nebulous 

 matter. These rings being thinner at some point than else- 

 where, broke at the thinnest place, condensed into oblate 

 spheroids, and, with continued rotation, into spheres. See 

 Figures 1, 2 and 3, pages 56, 51 and 58.) The rotating 

 nebulous mass contracts by loss of heat ; and, accord- 



of SOLAR AT „ ^ 



Fig. 3. — representing the fragments of the ring, as shown in Fig. 2, gathered 

 up into spherical form by the mutual attraction of their molecules. It will be 

 seen that the spheres must naturally revolve around the solar equator in the 

 same direction that it moves, and also rotate on their axes in the same direction. 

 Moving in nearly the same orbit, they would next be gathered into a single 

 sphere, moving around the sun in the' same direction, but with eccentricities 

 dependent upon the force and directions of their collisions at the time of their 

 uniting. 



ing to a well-known law, as it contracts its velocity of 

 rotation increases. When the centrifugal and centripetal 

 forces at the equator of the mass balance one another a ring 



