Page:In the high heavens.djvu/228

 weigh the matter, it will probably appear that, this negative evidence as to the mass of the comets is more satisfactory than the results of any of the more direct attempts to place the comets in the weighing scales. If we restate the circumstances of the solar system, and if we include the comets in our view, it will appear how seriously the existence of the comets affects the validity of the argument in favour of the nebular hypothesis which is derived from the uniformity in the directions of the planetary movements. If we include the whole host of minor planets, we have for the population of the solar system something under three hundred planets, and an enormous multitude of comets. It will probably not be an overestimate if we suppose that the comets are ten times as numerous as the planets. The case, then, stands thus:

The solar system consists of some thousands of different bodies; these bodies move in orbits of the most varied degrees of eccentricity; they have no common direction; their planes are situated in all conceivable positions, save only that each of these planes must pass through the sun. Stated in this way, the present condition of the solar system is surely no argument for the nebular theory. It might rather be said that it is inconceivable on the nebular theory how a system of this form could be constructed at all. Nine-tenths of the bodies in the solar system do not exhibit movements which would suggest that they were produced from a nebula: the remaining tenth do no doubt exhibit movements which seem to admit of explanation by the nebular theory: but, had that tenth not obeyed the group of laws referred to, they would not now be there to tell the tale. The planetary system now lives because it was an organism fitted for survival.