The celestial worlds discover'd : $b or, conjectures concerning the inhabitants, plants and productions of the worlds in the planetsHuygens, Christiaan
Science
The celestial worlds discover'd : $b or, conjectures concerning the inhabitants, plants and productions of the worlds in the planets
Huygens, Christiaan
Cosmology -- Early works to 1800; Life on other planets -- Early works to 1800; Plurality of worlds -- Early works to 1800
have they any Clouds to obſtruct their View, ſo that it is eaſier for
them to find out the Courſes of the Planets, but more difficult to make
a true Syſtem of them. For they will be apt to lay a wrong Foundation,
by ſuppoſing that their Earth ſtands ſtill, which will lead them into
more dangerous Errors than [This may be applied to the Moons about
Jupiter and Saturn.] ever it did us. All that I have ſaid belongs as
well to Jupiter’s and Saturn’s Satellites as to our Moon, in reſpect of
the Planets they move round. The Length of their Day and Night is
always equal to the Time of their Revolution: For example, the fifth
Moon moves round Saturn in 80 Days, and the Days and Nights there are
equal to Forty of ours. Both their Summer and Winter (Saturn moving
round the Sun in thirty Years) are fifteen Years long. Therefore it is
impoſſible but that their way of living muſt be very different from
ours, having ſuch tedious Winters, and ſuch long watching and ſleeping
times.
Having thus explained the primary and ſecondary Planets round the Sun,
we ſhould next ſet about the third Sort, the Sun and fix’d Stars; but
before we do that, it would be worth while to ſet before you at once,
in a clearer and more plain Method than hitherto, the Magnificence and
Fabrick of the Solar Syſtem. Which we can’t poſſibly do in ſo ſmall a
Space as one of our Leaves will but admit of, becauſe the Bodies of the
Planets are ſo prodigiouſly ſmall in companion of their Orbs. But what
is wanting in Figure ſhall be made up in Words. Going back then to the
firſt Scheme, ſuppoſe another [Fig. 1.] like it, and proportionable,
drawn upon a very large ſmooth Plain; whoſe outermoſt Circle
repreſenting the Orb of Saturn, muſt be conceived three hundred and
ſixty Foot in Semidiameter. In which you muſt place the Globe and Ring
of Saturn of that [Fig. 2.] Bigneſs as the 2d Figure ſhows you. Let all
the other Planets be ſuppoſed every one in his own Orbit, and in the
middle of all the Sun, of the ſame Bigneſs that That Figure repreſents,
namely, about four Inches in Diameter. And then the Orbit or Circle in
which the Earth moves, which the Aſtronomers call the Magnus Orbis,
muſt have about ſix and thirty Foot in Semidiameter. In which the Earth
muſt be conceived moving, not bigger than a grain of Millet, and her
Companion the Moon ſcarcely perceivable, moving round her in a Circle a
little more than two Inches Diameter, as in [Fig. 5.] the Figure here
adjoined, where the Line A B repreſents a ſmall portion of that Circle
which the Earth moves in: the ſmall Circle therein C is the Earth, and
the Circle D E the Path of the Moon round it, in which the Body of the
Moon is D.
The outermoſt of Saturn’s Moons moves in an Orbit whoſe Semidiameter is
29 Inches; that of Jupiter in a ſomewhat ſmaller, whoſe Semidiameter is
19 and a quarter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account