FORMATION OF METEORITES Z77 



that the secondary systems of the two suns will be most pro- 

 foundly disturbed and the symmetrical and harmonious relations 

 of the planetary orbits be utterly broken up. While even in this 

 case the immediate contingency of a disruptive approach of one 

 secondary to another may not be high, there will arise a 

 perpetuated series of contingencies, the consequences of which will 

 apparently be immeasurably greater than those immediately inci- 

 dent to the disturbing action, and the end of this perpetuated 

 series of contingencies can scarcely be foreseen. Assuming that 

 the great planets will exercise the same kind of influence over the 

 small planets and asteroids that pass near them 'i\\2X Jupiter does 

 over comets, the range of possible contingencies involves, on the 

 one hand, closer and closer approaches and even collisions with 

 the Sun and with other planets, and, on the other hand, the devel- 

 opment of extremely elliptical orbits that will carry the small 

 bodies into the sphere of influence of some other system. How 

 large a proportion of these theoretical possibilities will be rea- 

 lized in a given disturbed system, it is impossible to determine, 

 for the problem is far beyond the power of mathematical analysis, 

 but it seems at least probable that results of moment may 

 ensue. 



If we may judge from the solar system, the small bodies may 

 be assumed to be at least fifty times as numerous as the large 

 ones, while not improbably they are a hundred or several hundred 

 times as numerous. Other things being equal, they should show 

 the characteristic effects of the action under discussion with 

 correspondingly greater frequency. But the other conditions 

 intensify these effects. A small bod}- may be disrupted by a 

 large one, but not necessarily the reverse. So, too, a small body 

 may be thrown into an erratic orbit, while the orbit of the large 

 body may not be sensibly affected, as shown by the changes in 

 the orbits of comets caused hy Jupiter. By far the most common 

 effect of the close approach of two star systems should therefore 

 be the fragmentation of the small bodies by being caused to 

 pass within the spheres of disruption of the large bodies. As 

 previously indicated, the cojitingency of acquiring at tJie same time 



