THE NEW PLANETS.

Indications of a Gap in the Solar System.-Bode's Analogy.-Prediction founded upon it.-Piazzi discovers Ceres-Dr. Olbers discovers Pallas.-Harding discovers Juno.-Dr. Olbers discovers Vesta.-Indications afforded by these Bodies of the Truth of Bode's Predictions.-Fragments of a Broken Planet-Others probably still undiscovered.-Their Ultra-Zodiacal Motions.-Their Eccentricities-They are probably not Globular.-Other Singularities of their Appearance.

THE NEW PLANETS.

Ar a very early period of astronomical inquiry it was observed that the spaces which intervene in the solar system between planet and planet augment in a double proportion as the planets recede from the sun. Thus the space between Mercury and Venus is only half that which intervenes between Venus and the earth. The latter, again, is only half that which separates this planet from Mars. In like manner, the space between Jupiter and Saturn is only half the space between Saturn and Herschel. To this remarkable law, however, a conspicuous exception was noticed by Kepler, and was more emphatically insisted upon and more strictly demonstrated in the latter part of the last century, by Bode of Berlin. While the spaces which successively intervene between the planets Mercury, Venus, the earth, and Mars, are continually in the proportion of one to two, that which intervenes between Mars and Jupiter, instead of being as it ought to be, in accordance with the law thus indicated-double the space between Mars and the earth-is, in fact, nearly six times that space. A planet, therefore, which would move between Mars and Jupiter, at a distance beyond Mars equal to twice the distance of Mars from the earth, would complete the system; for then there would be between such a planet and Jupiter twice the space which would intervene between it and Mars. The presence of such a planet would then remove all exception in the system to this law of increasing distance. Professor Bode ventured to predict that a planet would at some future period be discovered revolving in that position; and even if no such planet were discovered, he maintained that we should be justified in the inference that, at some former epoch, a planet did exist in such a position.

There is an instinctive faith in the harmony and universality of nature's laws; and when we behold in any of them a glaring exception, we are led at once to anticipate that such exception is only apparent, and that by increased knowledge we shall discover that the law is in reality universal.

This remarkable prediction, as may be easily imagined, attracted the attention of astronomers to those quarters of the firmament where the suspected

THE NEW PLANETS.

Ar a very early period of astronomical inquiry it was observed that the spaces which intervene in the solar system between planet and planet augment in a double proportion as the planets recede from the sun. Thus the space between Mercury and Venus is only half that which intervenes between Venus and the earth. The latter, again, is only half that which separates this planet from Mars. In like manner, the space between Jupiter and Saturn is only half the space between Saturn and Herschel. To this remarkable law, however, a conspicuous exception was noticed by Kepler, and was more emphatically insisted upon and more strictly demonstrated in the latter part of the last century, by Bode of Berlin. While the spaces which successively intervene between the planets Mercury, Venus, the earth, and Mars, are continually in the proportion of one to two, that which intervenes between Mars and Jupiter, instead of being as it ought to be, in accordance with the law thus indicated-double the space between Mars and the earth-is, in fact, nearly six times that space. A planet, therefore, which would move between Mars and Jupiter, at a distance beyond Mars equal to twice the distance of Mars from the earth, would complete the system; for then there would be between such a planet and Jupiter twice the space which would intervene between it and Mars. The presence of such a planet would then remove all exception in the system to this law of increasing distance. Professor Bode ventured to predict that a planet would at some future period be discovered revolving in that position; and even if no such planet were discovered, he maintained that we should be justified in the inference that, at some former epoch, a planet did exist in such a position.

There is an instinctive faith in the harmony and universality of nature's laws; and when we behold in any of them a glaring exception, we are led at once to anticipate that such exception is only apparent, and that by increased knowledge we shall discover that the law is in reality universal.

This remarkable prediction, as may be easily imagined, attracted the attention of astronomers to those quarters of the firmament where the suspected