Page:In the high heavens.djvu/223

 and the denser portion would gradually attract the rarer portions around it, until instead of a ring we should have a single mass, composed of a nearly solid centre, surrounded by an immense atmosphere of fiery vapour. This condensation of the ring of vapour around a single point would have produced no change in the amount of rotary motion originally existing in the ring; the planet surrounded by its fiery atmosphere would therefore be in rotation, and would be, in miniature, a reproduction of the case of the sun surrounded by his atmosphere with which we set out. In the same way that the solar atmosphere formed itself first into rings, and then these rings condensed into planets, so, if the planetary atmosphere were sufficiently extensive, they would form themselves into rings, and these rings would condense into satellites. In the case of Saturn, however, one of the rings was so perfectly uniform that there could be no denser portion to draw the rest of the ring around it, and thus we have the well-known rings of Saturn."

It will thus be seen that one of the principal features in the solar system for which the nebular theory has been invoked is the fact that the planets all revolve round the sun in the same direction. It will therefore be natural to take up first the discussion of this subject, and to inquire how far the common motion of the planets can be claimed in support of Laplace's nebular theory. The value of this argument is very materially influenced by another consideration of a somewhat peculiar character. If it were quite immaterial to the welfare of the planetary system whether all the planets moved the same way, or whether some moved one way and some another, then the nebular hypothesis would be entitled to all the support which