Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 11.djvu/97

Rh defined at the present time, and which seems to afford evidence respecting the physical condition of the planet. The large, white patches which occur on and about the equatorial zone, and interrupt the continuity of the dark belts, are well known to all observers, and the particular point in connection with them to which I beg leave to call attention is, that they cast shadows—that is to say, the light patches are bounded on the side farthest from the sun by a dark border shaded off softly toward the light, and showing in a distinct manner that the patches are projected or relieved from the body of the planet. The evidence which this observation is calculated to afford refers to the question whether the opaque body of the planet is seen in the dark belts or the bright ones, and points to the conclusion that it is not seen at all in either of them, but that all we see of Jupiter consists of semi-transparent materials. The particular fact from which this inference would be drawn is, that the dark sides of the suspended or projected masses are not sufficiently hard or sharply defined for shadows falling upon an opaque surface; neither are they sharper upon the light background than upon the dark. The laws of light and shade upon opaque bodies are very simple and very absolute; and one of the most rudimentary of them is that every body has its light, its shade, and its shadowy the relations between which are constant; and that the most conspicuous and persistent edge or limit in this association of elements is the boundary of the shadow—the shadow being radically different from the shade in that its intensity is uniform throughout in any given instance, and is not affected by the form of the surface on which it is cast, whereas the shade is distinguished by attributes of an opposite character. Now, if the dark spaces adjoining the light patches on Jupiter, which I have called shadows, are not shadows at all, but shades, it is obvious that the opaque surface of the planet on which the shadows should fall is concealed; whereas, if they are shadows, their boundaries are so soft and undefined as to lead to the conclusion that they are cast upon a semi-transparent body, which allows the shadow to be seen, indeed, but with diminishing distinctness toward its edge, according to the acuteness of its angle of incidence. Either explanation of the phenomenon may be the true one, but they both lead to the same conclusion, viz., that neither the dark belts nor the bright ones are opaque, and that, if Jupiter has any nucleus at all, it is not visible to us. It is obvious that the phenomena I have described would not be visible at the time of the planet's opposition, and the first occasion on which I noticed it was the night of the 16th of April last."

This reasoning, so far as it relates to the laws of light and shade and shadow, is, of course, altogether sound. Nor are there any points requiring correction which in any degree affect the astronomical inferences deducible from what Mr. Brett actually saw. I may note that somewhat later Mr. Knobel observed the shadow of white