Flowers of the SkyProctor, Richard A. (Richard Anthony)
Science
Flowers of the Sky
Proctor, Richard A. (Richard Anthony)
Astronomy
Newton was only able to speak confidently of the action of gravity at
the distance of Saturn, the remotest planet known in his day. He did,
indeed, refer to the comets as probably obeying, even in the remotest
parts of their paths, the force of the sun's gravity; but he could not
be certain on that point, because in his time no comet had been proved
to travel back to the sun after receding to the remotest portion of its
track. We now know not only that the sun's attraction extends to the
farthest parts of the solar system, having thus a domain in space nearly
thirty times larger than the sphere of Saturn, but we perceive that many
among the stars exert a similar force; for around them travel other
stars even as the planets travel around the sun. Thus we know that
gravity is exerted in regions lying hundreds of thousands of times
farther from the sun than Saturn is. We have, indeed, every reason to
believe, not only that star unto star extendeth this mysterious
attractive influence, but that the least particle in the inmost depths
of sun or world exerts in full force on each particle, even of suns
lying millions of times beyond the range of the most powerful telescope
yet constructed by man, the full energy corresponding (i.) to the
quantity of matter in itself and such particle, and (ii.) to the
distance separating each from each.
This is amazing enough; but there is something more perplexing and
mysterious in gravity even than this. Not only does gravity lead us to
consider the infinitely minute in space on the one hand, and the
infinitely vast in space on the other, but also it leads us to consider
the infinitely minute and the infinitely vast in time also, and this in
such a way as to suggest a difficulty which, as yet, no man has been
able to solve.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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