THE SOLAR SYSTEM

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 260, 30 July 1929, Page 9

THE SOLAR SYSTEM

LECTURE ON THE PLANETS. The old yet ever-new subject of astronomy was presented in an interesting man- j ner on Saturday evening, when Professor D. M. Y. Sommerville, of Victoria University College, commenced a series of lectures for the Workers’ Educational Association, in their rooms at the Trades Hall, and gave an address on “The Solar System.” “When we view the sky and look at the different stars,” said the lecturer. “we think they are very numerous, but there are probably only about 2000 which we can see t once. Some of these nre distinguished not always on account of their brightness, but rather because of their steady light. These are the plane’ which come much nearer to us. and if we view the heavens night after night for some time we shall observe that they nre not fixed like the stars, although the constellations always remain the same shape. The Babylonians, who were great astrologers, were already familiar with the five planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars. •Tupiter. and Saturn, which revolve round the sun. and the ancient names given to them still survive.” The idea that the planets revolved round the earth existed until the time of Copernicus in 1543. when, in the face of mucji opposition, he affirmed the principle field to-day that they travelled around the sun. In the following century Kenler’s famous laws revolutionised the dynamic rules of astronomy and from the basis which he provided Newton was able to deduce his' great law of gravitation—that the sun attracts the planets with a force inversely proportional to the square of distance. The lecturer described u.e planets and their systems in detail, and his remarks were illustrated by a number of lantern slides. An interesting discussion followed.