Mercury, with a mean distance of 35,900,000 miles, is circled round the sun at the enormous rate of about 108,000 miles per hour, accomplishing its entire journey in the short period of 88 days. Venus, whose mean distance is about 67,000,000 miles, is carried round the sun at the reduced rate of 78,000 miles per hour, completing her orbit in the increased time of 224 days. Our own Earth, at the still further increased mean distance of 92,000,000 miles, performs her journey at the reduced velocity of 64,000 miles per hour, accomplishing the journey round the sun in a period of 365 days.
Thus, the further we get from the sun, the slower becomes the movement of a planet in its orbit, and the longer it takes to complete its revolution round its controlling centre. Mars, at the increased distance of 141,000,000 miles, possesses a reduced velocity of 54,000 miles per hour, and completes its orbit in the increased duration of 686 days. So the decrease of velocity goes on, as the planets increase their mean distance from the sun, as the following figures show--
| mean distance. | period of revolution. | orbital velocity per hour. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jupiter | 482 | millions | 4,332 | days | 28,000 | miles |
| Saturn | 884 | " | 10,759 | " | 21,600 | " |
| Uranus | 1,780 | " | 30,687 | " | 1,800 | " |
| Neptune | 2,780 | " | 60.127 | " | 900 | " |
The relation of this decrease of velocity to the mean distance is exactly determined by Kepler's Third Law, in which he states that the square of the periodic time is proportionate to the cube of the mean distance. That this is true has already been proved in [Art. 28].
In conclusion on this point, let me ask the reader to try to conceive any other physical explanation for this decrease of orbital velocity as the mean distance is increased, than the one given here, namely, the decrease in the velocity and mass of the radiating and circulating Aether currents, and if such attempt is made, I premise that its only result will be utter failure. No other physical conception to account on a physical basis for all Kepler's Laws can be given or conceived, than that which finds its origin in the universal electro-magnetic Aether, which by its pressures, tensions and motions gives rise to all the phenomena incidental to, and associated with, planetary and stellar phenomena.
Therefore, inasmuch as all the laws of motion, and all Kepler's Laws can be accounted for by a gravitating and rotatory Aether medium, those facts alone, apart from the explanation of other phenomena associated with light and heat, would stamp the circulating Aether medium as the physical cause of all the motions and phenomena associated with the whole of the celestial mechanism.
Art. 105. Orbital Motions of Satellites and Planets.--According to Kepler's First Law, the Earth and all the other planets move round the sun in orbits which are in the shape of an ellipse. Not only, however, is the first law true of planetary motion, it is equally true of the motions of all satellites moving round their primary planets. I wish, however, to point out, and prove in an indisputable manner, that Kepler's First Law does not sufficiently explain and determine the exact orbit of any satellite as it revolves around its primary planet, or even of any planet as it revolves around the sun.
Simply because, if any satellite or planet is to perform a perfect ellipse as it revolves around its central body, that central body must only move for a time and must then come to rest, or partly return in its journey in order for a perfect ellipse to be formed, as shown in a previous figure. Now we know from observation that such a thing as rest in space by any planet, or by the sun, is absolutely unknown in the celestial mechanism.
From [Art. 92] we learned that the electro-magnetic Aether currents not only circulate round the sun, but they also circulate round each planet. Thus we found there were electro-magnetic Aether currents circulating round each planet, while those planets themselves were circled round the sun by the Aether currents generated by the sun; the planetary Aether currents in their turn propel the satellites round their primary planets. It can easily be seen, therefore, that such phenomena as rest and return of a planet in its journey are physical impossibilities, for either the circulating Aether currents would have to cease circulating, or would have to return upon themselves in some inconceivable manner.
Thus there is ever going on this conjoint motion, so to speak, of the sun's aetherial currents which circle all the planets round that body, and the planetary aetherial currents which circle all the satellites round their central body, and it is the effect of the conjoint working of these currents on the planets and satellites to which I wish to call the reader's attention.