For the table referred to we have calculated the areas of the three
rings to be 152,110,800,172 square miles, and we have assumed the
thickness as 90 miles, that is about two-thirds of that estimated by
Chambers in his handbook of Astronomy, but almost the same as that
given by Edmund Dubois; nevertheless their total volume comes up to
1,369,062,060,480 cubic miles, which reduces their average density
to 0·0001425 that of water, to make up the mass of 195,000,000 cubic
miles at the density of water, which we have adopted for the three.
This density corresponds to very nearly one-tenth of that of air,
which, however strange it may appear to us, may be considered to be
a very full allowance, seeing that we shall find, later on, that the
planet itself was formed out of matter whose density could not have
been more than one twenty-six millionth part of that of air. All the
same, it is hardly matter that we could liken to brickbats. After being
driven to this low estimate of density, which startled us, we referred
to an article in "Nature" of Nov. 26, 1886, on Ten Years' Progress
in Astronomy, where we find what follows:--"He (Newcomb) finds the
mass of Titan to be about 1/12,000 that of Saturn. It may be noted,
too, that Hall's observations of the motions of Mimas and Enceladus
indicate for the rings a mass less than 1/10 that deduced by Bessel;
instead of being 1/100 as large as the planet, they cannot be more than
1/1000, and are probably less than 1/10,000." (We make them 1/791514).
Thinking over the numbers herein given we cannot help being surprised
by them. If Titan be 1/12500 of the mass of Saturn, we cannot conceive
how the mass of his rings can be so much greater than that of Titan. We
cannot pretend to fit even one satellite of that size, mechanically,
into a space of 83,500 miles wide, while Titan revels in an ample
domain with a width of 332,000 miles. But we shall not pursue this part
of our speculations any further. Astronomers may be able to demonstrate
that the rings are of a totally different nature to those out of which
the planets and their satellites are supposed to have been made, or
that the nebular hypothesis or anything resembling it is no better than
a foolish dream. All that we have pretended to do has been to give them
their due place in the hypothesis we are attempting to analyze, and to
look upon them in a practical and mechanical light, as an unfinished
part of the solar system.
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