[7] “Saturn has a mean diameter that is about nine times that of Earth while his volume exceeds hers more than 700 times. Within an extreme span of upwards of four millions of miles on either side of Saturn’s globe there circle eight satellites and two millions of worlds, the least of which is probably as large as Mars. Then within the path of the innermost of these moons there is the wonderful ring system of Saturn. The span of this system of rings amounts to about 176,000 miles; that is its outermost edge lies about 88,000 miles from Saturn’s centre, while the complete system has a breadth of 37,600 miles, but the innermost part, to a breadth of nearly 9,000 miles is dark. Through this dark ring the outline of Saturn’s disc can be clearly perceived. In fact this wonderful dark ring is transparent. The bright parts of the system form two rings, separated from each other by a dark, but not perfectly black, circular division about 1700 miles broad.”
Proctor, “Expanse of the Heavens,” p. 96.
[8] “Its mean density is less than that of any known planet, being less than one-seventh of the earth.”
Proctor, “Expanse of the Heavens,” p. 97.
[9] Proctor, “Poetry of Astronomy,” p. 366.
CHAPTER IV.
SPACE.
If all the stars that we now see in space were once fire-mist, there must have been another region equally large filled with some substance of a temperature 600° below zero, in order to equalize the heat of the fire-mist and leave space 300° below zero, as it now is in the vast region that surrounds existing stars.[10] What must that cold of 600° have been, for what is that of 300° even when water freezes at 32° above zero and mercury at 30° below! Where that cold space was we know not, neither do we know what was in space before the fire-mist.[11]
If the nebular theory will sufficiently account for the throwing-off and cooling of the planets, will it likewise account for the millions of suns disseminated throughout space? In the first place, let us suppose that all these suns were made at the same time and filled space with the same substance as our earth, only in a diffused state. In such a case I cannot conceive how it could break up and resolve into stars, for there being no space to turn in all would revolve together. The pulp within the rind of an orange could not be cut into circles and caused to revolve inside of that rind; so fire-mist once filling the immensity of space must have continued to revolve in an unbroken mass. Secondly; If the stars were formed at different periods of time should not many be still forming? whereas space appears wondrously clear. We would think if all this great space were to-day filled with nebulae composed of material similar to that of earth, we could not see; for our vision of the heavens would be obstructed thereby, and we should know nothing about the countless numbers of stars that, with the aid of the telescope, now make the very heavens to blaze with light. Why is it that the space about all, or nearly all, of the suns has thus cleared if a state of fire-mist is common to all of them? It is true Nebulae are seen that appear like vast fields of dim light, but they are often resolved into stars when examined with powerful instruments, and the nebulae that cannot be thus resolved into suns occupy but a small portion of the heavens. Less than one cubic foot is now left out of the 147,200 millions of cubic feet in every cubic mile of fire-mist that the sun’s sphere must have contained when it reached out to the planet Neptune, and what has become of it all? If it is not in our system it must have gone into others. Again; if among the stars that we now see there are a million, or even a thousand times as many dark bodies as luminous ones, they must in a measure obstruct the light of the glowing suns. But were this known to be true it would not prove that these bodies were not originally formed dark objects; and who but an omnipotent and omniscient Ruler could prevent repeated collisions among them?
The nebular theory accounts only for our own solar system, and yet all the stars that we see in the heavens can be no less wondrous than our own flaming sun. That we see their light even, at so great a distance, is proof that they can be no less great. We must account, then, not only for our own planetary system, but for the countless millions that exist; and we must concede that the laws that govern one would, presumably, govern every one. Hence, a period of fire-mist for one implies the same for all.
If the distance from our sun to the next nearest sun is 20 trillions of miles, a sphere whose radius reaches half way, that is ten trillion miles, could contain eight sextillions of suns, each with a diameter of one million of miles. Now let a single grass seed represent one of these suns, and twenty-seven millions of them one cubic inch. Should we fill a bin one mile long, broad, and high, with such seeds, there would yet be more suns in the above sphere than it would take of grass seeds to fill this bin holding seven sextillions of them. When we think that each grass seed is to represent a sun two million times larger than our earth,—for each sun with a million of miles diameter would,—the thought of the contents of such a sphere is overwhelming.