Views of the architecture of the heavens / By J.P. Nichol.

  • John Pringle Nichol
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Views of the architecture of the heavens / By J.P. Nichol. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    222/280 page 200
    ULTIMATE FORMS. 3 68 composed of quantities of matter necessarily very small when compared with the main body. Here, then, have we our first idea of the ori¬ gination of planetary—or of quantities of parasitic revolving matter; and the question next arises, what forms would these rings probably ultimately assume? There are three possible forms. 1. The mass, if tolerably equable in its original constitu¬ tion, and undisturbed from without, might con¬ dense as it is, or into a rotating solid ring ; but the chances against such a result are so numerous, that we would expect the phenomenon to be very rare in the Universe. 2. If the mass broke up or separated while condensing—as its own internal irregularities would, in all probability, constrain it to do—it might divide into a number of portions so equal in attractive energy that none of them would have any tendency to coalesce with, or fall into the others ; so that the ring would ultimately be transformed into a number of distinct small solid bodies, revolving around the central mass at nearly the same distance from it. These bodies, it is clear, would in their final state be spherical or round planets; and although not so evident, it is yet mechanically certain, that they would neces¬ sarily rotate on their axes in the direction of their
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