Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, January 1900: Vol. 56, November, 1899 to April, 1900Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, January 1900: Vol. 56, November, 1899 to April, 1900
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
And, having noticed these recurring features, the observer will
begin to note their relations to one another, and will thus be led
to observe that some of them gradually drift apart, while others
drift nearer; and after a time, without any aid from books or hints
from observatories, he will discover for himself that there is a law
governing the movements on Jupiter’s disk. Upon the whole he will find
that the swiftest motions are near the equator, and the slowest near
the poles, although, if he is persistent and has a good eye and a good
instrument, he will note exceptions to this rule, probably arising, as
Professor Hough suggests, from differences of altitude in Jupiter’s
atmosphere. Finally, he will conclude that the colossal globe before
him is, exteriorly at least, a vast ball of clouds and vapors, subject
to tremendous vicissitudes, possibly intensely heated, and altogether
different in its physical constitution, although made up of similar
elements, from the earth. Then, if he chooses, he can sail off into the
delightful cloud-land of astronomical speculation, and make of the
striped and spotted sphere of Jove just such a world as may please his
fancy--for a world of some kind it certainly is.
For many observers the satellites of Jupiter possess even greater
attractions than the gigantic ball itself. As I have already remarked,
their movements are very noticeable and lend a wonderful animation
to the scene. Although they bear classical names, they are almost
universally referred to by their Roman numbers, beginning with the
innermost, whose symbol is I, and running outward in regular order II,
III, and IV. The minute satellite much nearer to the planet than any
of the others, which Mr. Barnard discovered with the Lick telescope in
1892, is called the fifth, although in the order of distance it would
be the first. In size and importance, however, it can not rank with its
comparatively gigantic brothers. Of course, no amateur’s telescope can
show the faintest glimpse of it.
Satellite I, situated at a mean distance of 261,000 miles from
Jupiter’s center--about 22,000 miles farther than the moon is from the
earth--is urged by its master’s overpowering attraction to a speed of
320 miles per minute, so that it performs a complete revolution in
about forty-two hours and a half. The others, of course, move more
slowly, but even the most distant performs its revolution in several
hours less than sixteen days. The plane of their orbits is presented
edgewise toward the earth, from which it follows that they appear
to move back and forth nearly in straight lines, some apparently
approaching the planet, while others are receding from it. The changes
in their relative positions, which can be detected from hour to hour,
are very striking night after night, and lead to a great variety of
arrangements always pleasing to the eye.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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