Leverrier;
but by the concurrence of several circumstances much to be regretted, the
world at large were not made acquainted with Mr. Adams's valuable discovery
until subsequently to the period at which Leverrier published his
observations. As the data of Leverrier and Adams stand at present, there is
a discrepancy between the predicted and the true distance, and in some other
elements of the planet; it remains therefore, for these or future
astronomers to reconcile theory with fact, or perhaps, as in the case of
Uranus, to make the new planet the means of leading to yet greater
discoveries. It would appear from the most recent observations, that the
mass of Neptune, instead of being, as at first stated, 1/9300th, is only
about 1/23000th that of the Sun, while its periodic time is now given with a
greater probability at 166 years, and its mean distance from the Sun nearly
30. The planet appears to have a ring, but as yet no accurate observations
have been made regarding its system of satellites. See 'Trans. Astron.
Soc.', and 'The Planet Neptune', 1848, by J. P. Nicholl.) -- Tr.
We may, with no incondsiderable degree of probability, include within the
domain of our Sun, in the immediate sphere of its central force, a rotating
ring of vaporous matter, lying probably between the orbits of Venus and
Mars, but certainly beyond that of the Earth,* which appears to us in
p 92
a pyramidal form, and is known as the 'Zodiacal Light'; and a host of very
small asteroids, whose orbits either intersect, or very nearly approach,
that of our earth, and which present us with the phenomena of aerolites and
falling or shooting stars.
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