The elliptic
p 94
orbits of Juno, Pallas, and Mercury have the greatest degree of
eccentricity, and Mars and Venus, which immediately follow each other, have
the least. Mercury and Venus exhibit the same contrasts that may be
observed in the four smaller planets, or asteroids, whose paths are so
closely interwoven.
The eccentriciities of Juno and Pallas are very nearly identical, and reach
three times as great as those of Ceres and Vesta. The same may be said of
the inclination of the orbits of the planets toward the plane of projection
of the ecliptic, or in the position of their axes of rotation with relation
to their orbits, a position on which the relations of climate, seasons of
the year, and length of the days depend more than on eccentricity. Those
planets that have the most elongated elliptic orbits, as Juno, Pallas, and
Mercury, have also, although not to the same degree their orbits most
strongly inclined toward the ecliptic. Pallas has a comet-like inclination
nearly twenty-six times greater than that of Jupiter, while in the little
planet Vesta, which is so near Pallas, the angle of inclination scarcely by
six times exceeds that of Jupiter. An equally irregular succession is
observed in the position of the axes of the few planets (four or five) whose
planes of rotation we know with any degree of certainty.
Pages:
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193