Page:The Solar System - Six Lectures - Lowell.djvu/111



a near satellite than upon a far one, and we should expect the line expressing the action to prove a curve concave to the axis of x, when the bodies acted on are not too dissimilar in size. Such is precisely the opposite of the curve the diagrams present.

Nevertheless tidal action is probably the cause of the law of inclinations shown in the orbits of satellites to the equatorial plane of their primary. But it would seem to imply that the farther ones were given off first, and very much the first.