Читать книгу Triumphs and Wonders of the 19th Century: The True Mirror of a Phenomenal Era - James P. Boyd - Страница 31

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An erroneous guess, if it is a good guess, sometimes produces excellent results. In 1778, Bode, of Berlin, published a “law” that states the distances of the various planets from the sun. It is often expressed simply in this way: Set down 4, and add to it successively the numbers 3, 6, 12, 24, etc., and the sums obtained, viz., 4, 7, 10, 16, 28, etc., represent the relative distances of all the planets from the sun, viz., Mercury 4, Venus 7, Earth 10, Mars 16, [Asteroids 28], Jupiter 52, etc. In reference to all the planets then known to exist, the correspondence of the alleged law to the facts was remarkable. The one point in which the alleged system utterly failed was in requiring the existence of a planet to fill the gap between Mars and Jupiter. So boldly did Biela press his convictions of the correctness of this law upon the notice of his fellow-workers, that they resolved, in 1800, to divide the zodiac into twenty-four zones, to be apportioned among them, for the express purpose of searching for undiscovered planets. This well-organized effort was, erelong, rewarded by the surprising discovery of four new planets, the first one on the first night of the new century, January 1, 1801, and three more soon after. As no more seemed to be forthcoming, the search was relinquished in 1816. A fifth was found in 1845, and nearly five hundred since. Since 1891 photography has been wondrously serviceable in finding these bodies. A sensitive plate, on being exposed toward that part of the sky which it is desired to examine, will record all the perceptible stars as round disks; while any planets that appear in the field of view will, by their motion, leave their trace in the form of elongated trails or streaks, thus betraying themselves at once on the photographs. In this way Charlois, of Nice, Italy, has found nearly ninety small planets. All these planetoids, as the minor planets are often termed, are quite small, being but twenty to one hundred miles in diameter, and not consequential members of the solar system. Bode’s law thus fulfilled its temporary mission; but egregiously failed when Neptune claimed admission to a place in the solar system, for its distance from the sun was utterly out of harmony with that required by the law of Bode.