It is a startling
thought that a world can possibly carry within itself, like a dynamite
cartridge, the means of its own disruption; but the idea does not appear
so extremely improbable when we recall the evidence of collisions or
explosions, happening on a tremendous scale, in the case of new or
temporary stars.[9]
[Footnote 9: "Since the discovery of Eros, the extraordinary position of
its orbit has led to the suggestion that possibly Mars itself, instead
of being regarded as primarily a major planet, belonging to the
terrestrial group, ought rather to be considered as the greatest of the
asteroids, and a part of the original body from which the asteroidal
system was formed."--J. Bauschinger, Astronomische Nachrichten, No.
3542.]
Coming to the question of life upon the asteroids, it seems clear that
they must be excluded from the list of habitable worlds, whatever we
may choose to think of the possible habitability of the original planet
through whose destruction they may have come into existence. The largest
of them possesses a force of gravity far too slight to enable it to
retain any of the gases or vapors that are recognized as constituting an
atmosphere. But they afford a captivating field for speculation, which
need not be altogether avoided, for it offers some graphic illustrations
of the law of gravitation. A few years ago I wrote, for the
entertainment of an audience which preferred to meet science attired in
a garb woven largely from the strands of fancy, an account of some of
the peculiarities of such minute globes as the asteroids, which I
reproduce here because it gives, perhaps, a livelier picture of those
little bodies, from the point of view of ordinary human interest, than
could be presented in any other way.
Pages:
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112