Page:A philosophical essay on probabilities Tr. Truscott, Emory 1902.djvu/112

102 divers spheroids. The satellites have been similarly formed by the atmospheres of their respective planets.

I have developed at length in my Exposition of the System of the World this hypothesis, which appears to me to satisfy all the phenomena which this system presents us. I shall content myself here with considering that the angular velocity of rotation of the sun and the planets being accelerated by the successive condensation of their atmospheres at their surfaces, it ought to surpass the angular velocity of revolution of the nearest bodies which revolve about them. Observation has indeed confirmed this with regard to the planets and satellites, and even in ratio to the ring of Saturn, the duration of whose revolution is .438 minutes, while the duration of the rotation of Saturn is .427 minutes.

In this hypothesis the comets are strangers to the planetary system. In attaching their formation to that of the nebulæ they may be regarded as small nebulæ at the nuclei, wandering from systems to solar systems, and formed by the condensation of the nebulous matter spread out in such great profusion in the universe. The comets would be thus, in relation to our system, as the aerolites are relatively to the Earth, to which they would appear strangers. When these stars become visible to us they offer so perfect resemblance to the nebulæ that they are often confounded with them; and it is only by their movement, or by the knowledge of all the nebulæ confined to that part of the heavens where they appear, that we succeed in distinguishing them. This supposition explains in a happy manner the great extension which the heads and tails of comets