SUPPOSED CRISIS IN SATURN.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12960, 13 November 1907, Page 6

SUPPOSED CRISIS IN SATURN.

According to a cable message which we publish thie morning, Professor Lowell, of Arizona, a distinguished observer, especially known as a student*of the canaJfl of Mars, suggests an impending crisis in the ring system of Satnrn. The planet viewed sideways preaente somewhat the appearance of an orange lying in a quoit. Seen edge on, the appearance in * fine telescope is that of an orange with » knitting needle •tuck through it, for the rings are but fifty unites thick, and the planet ia 74,000 miles in diameter. Tho ringa stand over the Equator. The nearest edge to the planet ie 6000 miles away. With certain g»p» and tfvieiou*, the system of rings extends 48,000 miles from the planet. They axe not solid nor are they liquid ot vaporous; they are composed of such myriads of meteoric particles each moving in its separate orbit, that at * dietanoe of 800 million miles the Tinge appeaor solid. The rings are now edge on as •sen from the earth, and we gather from the cable message that Professor Lowell ha» seen knots or condensations on what we may call the silver arrow etuck through the planet. Thie is not new. Sir William Herechell described the same appearance over a century ago, and Laplace found that the stability of Saturna rings depended on the fact that they were not uniformly thkok, but had knots and condensations. Thirty years ago, when the dark or "crape" ring within the others was- discovered, there was some speculation aa to whether the rings were breaking down. Thia i ring ie composed of separate meteors «o thinly at«wn that other bwfies can be seen through it. Hart» of gpod observers had never seen this ring, but after its discovery every observer could ccc it, and naturally it waa suggested that the ring was a new formation. That idea ie not now aeriouely entertained; most observers can ccc when they know what to look for, and that explain* much. If the rings j should return to Satnrn, they would not fall like a breaking arch with a stupendous cosmic crash; each particle baa its orbit, like the moon, and can no more fall than can the moon; but if retarded the rings might sink by a gentle spiral to tne plinet, and end in an age-long star shower. Everything, however, is against the id«e of their fall. Cataclysm is not now c scientific agent—that is one general principle; another is that all Professor Darwin's investigations into the origin of moons teach us thit matter once caat off from a planet tende ever to move further away, not to fall back. The <vllapse of Saturn's rings on to the pbuet would be equivalent to an oak tree reverting to an acorn, nor can Professor Salisbury's suggestion that two new satellite* are being formed be taken as a serious theory. Roche's Uw tells us that no considerable satellite can exist within two and a

half radii of ifc» primary. SaturnVs rings do not extend half the distance allowed by Roche's law, end, therefore, no satellite—no considerable satellite at eny rate—can be in process of forming. Wβ may conclude, therefore, that the learned professors have either found mares' nests, or have been made to say more then they really intended to convey.