THE BIRTH AND DEATH OF PLANETS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1449, 30 August 1879, Page 24

THE BIRTH AND DEATH OF PLANETS.

It is from the order of succession in Nature, and not from the everlasting endurance of her works, that we may reasonably expect the reign of perpetual activity in her wide domains. In the animal and the vegetable kingdoms the ravages of decay and death are eternally repaired by the birth of new representatives of life ; and the loss which our continents undergo by occasional submergence, is compensated by [the appearance of new lands above the waters. Even those stupendous catastrophes involving planetary fate do not make an irreparable loss in the Tast array of celestial objects. The matter saved from such mighty wrecks will again be available for useful ends ; the forces which seem destroyed in the terrific convulsions only assume other forms to participate in new movements and operations, and even the sp&oe-pOTvading medium, while dooming the present worlds to an end in the distant future, yet contributes much to bring others into being, and to perpetuate the events and wonders of our universe. A due to the man* ncr in which suoh important purposes are achieved is to be found on tracing the fate of planets or of satellites introduced into orbits of the smallest size possible; and these inquiries can be conducted with the aid of mathematical principles, whioh are almost wholly unavailable In pursuing the details of the nebular hypothesis.— Popular Soienoe Monthly.