The Daily News THURSDAY, MAY 1, 1930. A NEW PLANET.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 May 1930, Page 8

The Daily News THURSDAY, MAY 1, 1930. A NEW PLANET.

Although it is only to a eom 7 paratively few that the subject of astronomy is attractive, yet the discovery of a new major planet is sufficiently sensational to compel the immediate interest of everyone in whom such a rare event awakens the imagination as to the relation of the earth on which we live to the rest of the universe. In a very interesting article recently contributed to the London Times by Dr. J. Jackson, of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, it is stated that only twice previously in the annals of human history has the discovery of a major planet been recorded— Uranus in 1781, and Neptune in 1846. There are as yet but few details of the new discovery, but the fact that the observations extended over seven weeks is deemed sufficient to make sure that'the object is really a very distant planet and not merely a faint minor planet, of which a score or more are discovered annually. In brightness the new object must, says Dr. Jackson, resemble a majority of the known minor planets, so that it can only be distinguished from them by its motion;. The strangest point connected with the discovery is that astronomers have been so. long ignorant of the search. It is well known that astronomical discoveries are made by means of short trails produced on a photographic plate during long exposures, photographs taken on different nights being compared. Judging by what happened in connection with the discovery of Neptune, it is considered quite possible that when sufficient observations have been made it will be found that the orbit of the new planet is quite different in several details from the predicted orbit. It is obvious that further exact information must be obtained before definite conclusions ’are possible. Even after the orbit of this new body has been accurately computed it will have to be traced backwards in order to ascertain what effect it has had on the outer planets, and particularly on Halley’s comet, which at its return in 1910 was a few days out. The faintness of the new body is considered to be rather remarkable. It is described as of the fifteenth magnitude, or about 1000 times fainter than Neptune, but it is said that it will be possible to photograph it in an hour with a reflector - of 20in aperture. The five great planets —Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn—are among the very brightest objects in the heavens, and were known in prehistoric times. The establishment of the Copernican Theory increased the number of planets to six—the earth being placed between Venus and Mars. Then came the discovery of Uranus and Neptune. Attention is called to the fact that, in the public mind Professor Lowell’s name has been associated almost exclusively with the planet Mars and, in particular, with the theory he advocated so powerfully that the planet is the abode of intelligent life. But his observations extended to all planets of our system, and the Lowell Observatory, which he founded and equipped with magnificent instruments at an astronomically ideal site at Flagstaff, in Arizona, has made important contributions to steliar asstronomy as well as to the astronomy of the solar sysstem. Beyond all question astronomers in all countries have been greatly indebted to the photographic and spectroscopic observations which have been made at Flagstaff, some of which are of fundamental importance in the most recent views of the stellar universe. It is also apparent that for many years, owing to certain evident disturbances in- the orbits of planets

and comets, astronomers have been searching for a new and predicted planet. One of the two possible solution indicated that the longitude of the planet would be 84 deg. in July, 1914, with an annual increase of about 1| deg., so that the longitude should now be approximately 104 deg. The position in which the new object has been found is 107 deg.—very near to the predicted position. To the lay mind such calculations are amazing, but they are evidently essential. The great advances made in the process of photography have done much to aid astronomers in their laborious work. It is known that the predicted orbits have large eccentricity, and it will be, interesting to all concerned in astronomy to learn if this is verified. In any ease the new body'will be of 'the greatest importance 'to theories of the origin of the solar system, the extent of which, apart from comets, has been doubled by the new discovery.