THE NEW YORK
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN:
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BY MUNN & COMPANY.
RUFUS PORTER, EDITOR.
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The Science of Astronomy.
DESCRIPTIVE ASTRONOMY.
Mercury, the nearest planet to the sun, is a globe of about 3140 miles in diameter, rotating on its axis in 24 hours and 5 1-2 minutes, and revolving round the central luminary, at a distance of 37,000,000 of miles, in 88 days.—From the earth it can only be seen occasionally in the morning or evening, as it never rises before, or sets after the sun, at a greater distance of the time than 1 hour and 50 minutes. It appears to the naked eye as a small and brilliant star, but when observed through a telescope, is horned like the moon, because we only see a part of the surface which the sun is illuminating. Mountains of great height have been observed on the surface of this planet, particularly in its lower or southern hemisphere. One has been calculated at 10 3-4 miles in height, being about eight times higher, in proportion to the bulk of the planet, than the loftiest mountains upon earth. The matter of Mercury is of much greater density than that of the earth, equalling lead in weight; so that a human being placed upon its surface would be so strongly drawn towards the ground as scarcely to be able to crawl.
Venus is a globe of about 7800 miles in diameter, or nearly the size of the earth, rotating on its axis in 23 hours, 21 minutes, and 19 seconds, and revolving round the sun, at the distance of 68,000,000 of miles in 225 days.—Like Mercury, it is visible to an observer on the earth only in the morning and evening, but for a greater space of time before sunrise and after sunset. It appears to us the most brilliant and beautiful of all the planetary and stellar bodies, occasionally giving so much light as to produce a sensible shadow. Observed through a telescope, it appears horned, on account of our seeing only a part of its luminous surface. The illuminating part of Venus occasionally presents slight spots. It has been ascertained that its surface is very unequal, the greatest mountains being in the southern hemisphere, as in the case of both Mercury and the Earth. The higher mountains in Venus range between 10 and 22 miles in altitude. The planet is also enveloped in an atmosphere like that by which animal and vegetable life is supported on earth; and it has consequently a twilight. Venus performs its revolution round the sun in 225 days. Mercury and Venus have been termed the Inferior Planets, as being placed within the orbit of the Earth.
The Earth, the third planet in order, and one of the smaller size, though not the smallest, is important to us, as the theatre on which our race have been placed to ‘live, move, and have their being.’ It is 7902 miles in mean diameter, rotating on its axis in 24 hours, at a mean distance of 95,000,000 of miles from the sun, round which it revolves in 365 days, 5 hours, 50 minutes, and 57 seconds. As a planet viewed from another of the planets, suppose the moon, ‘It would present a pretty, variegated, and sometimes a mottled appearance. The distinction between its seas, oceans, continents, and islands, would be clearly marked; they would appear like brighter and darker spots upon its disc. The continents would appear bright, and the ocean of a darker hue, because water absorbs the greater part of the solar light that falls upon it. The level plains, (excepting perhaps, such regions as the Arabian deserts of sand) would appear of a somewhat darker color than the more elevated and mountainous regions, as we find to be the case on the surface of the moon. The islands would appear like small bright specks on the darker surface of the ocean; and the lakes and mediterranean seas like darker spots or broad streaks intersecting the bright parts, or the land. By its revolution round its axis, successive portions of the surface would be brought into view, and present a different aspect from the parts which preceded,’—(Dick’s Celestial Scenery, 135.)
The form of the earth, and probably that of every other planet, is not strictly spheroidal; that is, flattened a little at the poles, or extremities of the axis. The diameter of the earth at the axis is 56 miles less than in the cross direction. This peculiarity of the form is a consequence of the rotatory motion, as will be afterwards explained.