Birth of the Solar System: A New Theory

DURING the eclipse of August, 1868, the darkened disk of the sun was invested with a brilliant ring of light, the corona. Vivid rays of white light darted from the disk, the circle of the sun scintillating like a star. Since the stars, excepting the planets, are rationally supposed to be solar orbs, they should emit light as the sun does ; and for the same reason. They are too distant to have a sensible breadth, nor can they suffer total eclipse, to our eyes, by small dark masses like the moon, but the stellar light should have the general characteristics—the nebulosity and radiation — of the sun, as far as they are like it in structure. The corona of the fixed stars and of the sun cannot depend solely upon the nature of the human eye, but in part upon a luminous cloudiness necessary to the optical effect. If a powerful artificial light be hidden by a small opaque disk in an atmosphere somewhat dusty, the particles of dust will shine with reflected light, making, when the light is intense, a sensible corona. Lieutenant Herschell, at his post of observation in India, examined the light of the corona, during total eclipse, with a polariscope, and established the fact of its polarization in planes passing through the centre of the sun. A cloud, or atmosphere, of reflecting surfaces, in fact, a dust cloud, apparently surrounds the sun, reflecting his rays. With instruments of extreme delicacy, we should be able to separate the direct from the polarized radiance of the stars, as of the sun itself.

Dr. Mayer, the author of Celestial Dynamics, was the first to surmise the existence of a meteoric vortex about the sun. His theory may be extended by combining with it observations on the solar corona, the scintillation of stars, and, possibly, the radial tails of comets ; for he employed the meteoric solar vortex in explanation of a kindred phenomenon, the zodiacal light. The meteoric vortex of the sun is supposed to have a flattened lenticular form, extended parallel with the ecliptic, thinning outward to the limit of the solar system. The cone of light seen in the west after sunset in a clear air is considered by Mayer to be a reflection of the sun’s rays from the denser part of this dust cloud within the orbit of the earth.

The correspondences in this instance are obvious. By an easy deduction, we find also that the meteoric solar vortex of Mayer may be brought in explanation of the hitherto bewildering phenomena of the comet’s tail, visible only as it approaches the sun. The tail may be merely a bar of light, extending outward into space. It has the movement and relative position of a cometary shadow. If the comet were a ball of glass, the rays of the sun would pass through, and form a focus upon the side remote from the sun. Beyond this there would be reflected a bar, or pencil of light, diverging into space. But this concentrated light could be made visible only by reflection, as the sunbeam in dust and fog. If visible at all, it would be made so by meteoric matter, a denser portion of the solar vortex. A comet, so far as we can judge, is a gaseous mass (with or without a solid nucleus). The sun’s rays will be bent in passing through it, but not as in a glass lens ; for the density of a gaseous comet increases toward its centre, like that of the lens of the human eye ; and if the rays enter diverging from each point of the solar surface, they will issue in a fascicle or bar of rays streaming out into space, and made visible by meteoric reflection as a bar of slightly concentrated light, sweeping through the heavens with the movement of a long shadow, but appearing curved because of the different times required for the passage of light ; the nearer reflections arriving first at the eye, the others delaying as they follow the rapid sweep of the tail through space.

This conjecture requires that the radial tail should be of reflected light, and so appear in the polariscope. The invisible should far exceed the visible diameter of a comet approaching the sun. The invisible mass may surpass that of the sun, and will refract his beams.

We can hardly doubt that meteoric matter very near the sun is intensely heated, and we may believe that, if it were not for the smallness of its particles, allowing a swift dispersion of heat into outer space, the vicinity of the sun would be densely, as it is now thinly, clouded with nebulous light. Indeed, many stars appear to be so conditioned, because of their grander size and temperature. Meteoric matter becoming rarer at great distances from the sun, all the phenomena of the vortex become faint, and many disappear, within the orbit of the earth.

A structural analogy between the earth and the sun may be established by the meteoric attendance upon both. The appearance of transient trails of intense light upon the solar atmosphere is only one of many points in the analogy. It is also strongly supported by the spectroscopic character of the colored flames which issue from the surface of the sun. The French and English astronomers have shown that these are gaseous emanations in a state of combustion. They appear not to differ in nature from volcanic flames, except in their enormous magnitude ; as if the fire of a volcano were vastly larger than the earth itself.

Good observations have also conferred a transparent atmosphere like our own upon the sun, but denser as the weight of matter on the solar surface is twenty-eight times greater than with us. So much more violent and effective, then, by reason of the depth and density of this atmosphere, must be the combustion of a massive meteor falling into it. By spectral analysis we can satisfy ourselves that solar light, like that of the stars, proceeds from matter similar in nature to that which composes the earth’s crust. Identity of substance appears throughout the universe. What it is now necessary to establish is an equal unity in plan of structure and development. We wish to know whether the forms and movements of physical nature, like those of the organic and the vital, have everywhere a uniform plan. What we regard as general causes of physical movements at the surface of the earth must be extended through the entire system. The sun, the stars, the earth, and the planets should have but one and the same origin, differing only in their stage of development.

In the cosmos, meaning by that word the material as distinguished from spiritual, we recognize three forms, the physical, the organic, and vital ; each capable of a separate idea, apart from that which is purely humane. I shall be obliged to assume that the cosmos is a limited creation, since otherwise it would be motionless within itself ; but we must also assume that, as a whole, it is unchangeable in plan and quantity. There is no discoverable cause why it should be otherwise. Astronomers will not object to a division of the material cosmos into incandescent and dark bodies, —by the latter intending planets, asteroids, satellites, and more especially the meteoric dust, of which a portion is continually showered upon the earth.

The sun, the planets, and their attendants must receive meteoric dust according to the greatness of their several masses and attractive power. The meteors, in falling, move into orbits which have centres in the body of the sun or planet, and are interrupted by impact only when the breadth of the attractive mass is too great to let them pass. The laws of gravitation arrange them in belts, like the dark rings of Saturn ; or in wide heliocentric bands ; or in the long-drawn cometlike clouds of Schiaparelli, slowly gathered in the outer fields of space, and trailing inward toward solar centres.

The quantity of finely divided dark matter of the universe may be as great as the sum of all the solar orbs ; but, because it is invisible until the moment of impact, we can estimate it only by the quantity gathered by a single small body, — the earth. We may compare this with the quantity that must be absorbed by the grander forces of the sun ; then, multiplying this by the probable number of solar orbs, a result is obtained exceeding the power of numeration. A few tons of meteoric matter, such as is constantly added to our soil and atmosphere every century, will increase the mass of the earth at a rate which geologists cannot fail to appreciate, By the methods of rational deduction now established in geological science, we are led to conclude that the earth has been gradually built up by meteoric accretion, having been at first only a dark nucleus formed at a vortical centre by attraction and friction (impact). But the earth is only an exemplar. The same laws of gyration and frictional impact must have built up all the masses of the cosmos.

Next to the observed results of gravitation, the broadest cosmical fact is the relation of mass to temperature. The greater bodies shine by heat of incandescence, in strong contrast with the darkness and coldness of the smaller. In the cosmic temperatures there is a certain systemic gradation. When matter is arranged in solar and planetary forms the material is compressed, the density of the spheroidal mass diminishing from the centre outward, — from the centre of the earth outward, for example, to the limits of the atmosphere. The temperature falls, as we proceed outward, with a regularity disturbed only by local variations. We find the heat increasing as we descend into the earth, and falling as we ascend high mountains. The extreme cold of space is, of course, the temperature of small meteoric bodies, until by striking into and condensing the atmosphere of a planet they are ignited. They are also influenced in temperature by proximity to solar centres. The same will hold good of any system, whether it be composed of coherent or of meteoric particles.

The vortical movement is a process of condensation. What is true for a mass must be true for a vortex, whether it consist of dark matter in systems partially condensed ; or of masses like the earth, where condensation is at a maximum.

Facility of absorbing and distributing heat in vacuo increases as the diameter of the mass becomes less. A meteorite no larger than a grain of sand is relatively more active in such changes than a larger mass, as its diameter is less. If the sun were broken into a cloud of dust widely extended through space, it would quickly disappear in cold and darkness. The actual amount of expansive force in a body is greater as it is larger ; but the facility of change — the active relation it bears to other bodies — depends upon relative extension of surface. Hence we might infer that meteoric clouds in all parts of space are rapid and powerful agents and distributors of expansive force. At night, the day’s heat absorbed from the sun is radiated from the earth’s surface ; being partly taken by vapors of the upper air, but chiefly, we may suppose, by the dark matter of space beyond the atmosphere. The heat of the fixed stars is not enough to counterbalance this absorption. The law of radiant forces ordains that, when no disturbing cause is interposed, bodies affect each other less, as distance multiplied into itself. This w, and the law of time or “ inertia,” governs all interchanges of temperature in vacuo. The sun and earth should act upon each other through nearly ninetyfive millions of miles of empty space with as great precision as if they were in contact. Bodies separated only by vacuum are in a dynamic relation which is instant, constant, and mathematical. The forces of relation co-operate with space, and do not require avehicle. It is not required that matter, or a "medium,” should be interposed.

Distribution of temperature under the necessary conditions of time and distance is as regular as the action of gravity, being constant in time, and disturbed only by interposition. If a body contracts (i. e. grows colder) in vacuo, others are expanding. Professor Rankin has shown us, that, in the development of temperatures, condensation, modified only by the specific nature of substances, is a mathematical measure of temperature, even where it is effected by chemical combination. It is needed to make this observation cosmic or universal.

Change of temperature is only a change in the amount of space occupied by mass ; and the contraction of a body must be balanced (other causes not being interposed) by an equal expansion of some other body or bodies. But “ other causes ” are, at certain moments, interposed. The expansion of a mass may be compensated by the motion of others in lines. Linear motion again is converted into expansion, and exactly compensates it. The two movements may have equal mechanical values, as when steam expands in a cylinder, forcing a piston before it, or when a cannon-ball is driven by the gases of gunpowder.

But the conversion of heat into motion is only a transformation of one form of movement into another, rise of temperature being a movement of the mass from its own centre outwards ; but this movement may change so as to be directed upon a single line, and become linear motion. Changing the form of movement cannot alter its value.

The process of contraction, which proceeds with a gyratory movement in solar systems, does not differ in principle or result from the condensation of a coherent mass under pressure. In both cases the heat evolved has the same origin. As long as vacuum remains, the motion of a system increases, and is not converted into centrospheric or heat motion until the moment of impact. The effect of meteoric impact upon the earth’s atmosphere is that of common friction, — as when the palm of the hand is rubbed upon the table ; linear movement is changed, by impact of particles, into centrospheric. Friction, in the form of impact, is the only mechanical means by which the dynamic value of motion can be made to change its symbols ; the only method of stopping and starting the wheels of the universe. Comets moving with great velocity toward solar centres, about which the dark matter is accumulated in revolving clouds, must be “ retarded,” as they plunge into these vortices, by the friction of impact ; and the same will be true of planets in solar vortices, though in a smaller degree. As they are heated by the meteoric friction, they also cannot fail to lose impetus and draw nearer to the sun.

It is of no moment what number of figures or value of algebraic signs we suggest to express periods of time occupied by variations so minute ; they nevertheless exist, and their results are constant and inevitable.

Astronomical observations have shown that the earth vibrates annually to and from the sun as it revolves, and the vibratory movement has an extent which varies during a million of years through distances large enough to change all the climates. By these variations, incidental to an alternate approach to and recession from the sun, geologists have endeavored to account for the marvellous discovery of Agassiz, that at one period layers of ice hooded the polar and temperate regions, and even covered the plains and valleys of the tropics. But to this and other slowly acting causes of climatic change we may possibly add the varying influence of the dark matter of space.

Loss of heat¹ by radiation from solar systems into the dark matter is controlled by certain physical causes external to those systems, and does not exhaust them by cold during their formation, but only during their subsequent dissipation in the nebulous stage. The temperature of solar centres continues to increase from two causes ; first, the friction of impact, or conversion of linear momentum into heat movement ; second, the restoration of radiant heat by the arrival at solar centres of the bodies that have absorbed and originated it during their gyration and approach. Should the earth fall toward the sun, it would become heated, as we suppose Mercury to be, in drawing near, and would restore a part of the heat absorbed by antecedent radiation at the moment of impact. It has also acquired a heat of its own.

And so of all inward movements, ending in the impact and absorption of vortical matter. That these causes more than counterbalance loss of heat by radiation into the dark matter of space is evident. In all parts of the universe solar orbs remain incandescent, and the greatest are the hottest. We know of no other causes than those named, for the concentration and dissipation of celestial temperatures. The hypothesis of an exhaustive and perpetually vibrating ether, whatever may be its mathematical value, does not belong to a science resting upon observation. As far as observation extends, heat force is lost or withdrawn only by tangible substances.

We recognize two cosmical principles correlated with gravity, and equally exact and universal, — the relation of mass to temperature, and the distribution of temperature by equalized interchange, under the relation of surface to mass. Both of these, like gravity, are, of course, subordinate to the conditions of space and time.

The conditions of time, developed in velocity and momentum, enter into all phenomena. Momenta and inertia of temperature have been called “ specific heats,” &c., expressing the times required for centrospheric movement.

A remarkable conclusion has been reached, — that all the great masses of matter gradually advance from the dark to the incandescent condition as they grow by accretion ; and that, as this movement proceeds, the solar orbs must eventually expand into gaseous nebulæ by attaining the temperature of dissociation. Chemical affinity is less active as repulsive force is developed ; it is converted into centrospheric movement. The lighter substances disengage themselves, and a nebulous cloud is formed, in which small portions of heavy matter remain visible. This deduction coincides with spectroscopic observation.

Expansive movements operate in the nebulous regions of the universe on a grand scale, while those of gravitation (or condensation) change the arrangement of other parts, according to the vortical system. Everywhere these two co-operate and replace each other, maintaining the balance of the whole within itself, but keeping it, as a whole, unchanged. The attractive must be always in reciprocal relation with dispersive movements.

Since these two cosmic movements, the thermal (centrospheric) and attractive, are equal in all, they must be equal in any ultimate part. An atom, or element, will be endowed with a sum of force which is constant, and equal to that of other atoms. The conception of physical force is of something unchangeable as to its whole, (being incapable of increase or diminution.) but subject to variation upon the principle of interchange, or of the quid pro quo.

If a substance is less capable of heat motion, it has more of the “ condensive quality; and the apportionment of these capacities, mutually developed and determined by relation with the cosmic whole, gives to each kind its specific value in that relation. The worth of a chemical element is given, not by its atomic weight alone, but also by the complementary dispersive capacity.

Conclusions so important invite us to consider anew the rational history of the earth and of its formation. The principles advanced oblige us to lay aside the popular hypothesis of an earth “gradually cooled from incandescence,” and present us with a terrestrial mass which lias grown larger and warmer from age to age. The earth began as a small, cold, dark body. With its mass its heat increased, the additions to the surface sustaining and increasing the heat of the centre.

The coldest region will be the equatorial, because here there has not been so complete an extinguishment of motion ; the region of the equator retains a portion of the vortical motion. But this coldness is steadily counteracted by the diurnal influence of the sun, and by laws governing the distribution of temperature in masses. Pursuant to certain well-known conditions, the heat of the axis will be diffused and ascend toward the equator, giving a gradation of temperature from the centre outward, in all parts of the mass. By the slow but constant combustion of atmospheric hydrogen collected in space, water is continually supplied to the atmosphere, the surface of the globe covered with moisture, and its hollows filled up with seas, lakes, and rivers.

With the beginning of this epoch concludes the first period or physical infancy of the earth, during which, like the moon, it remained barren and scoriaceous, the surface ploughed over with volcanic trenches, deeper and more sharply defined as the specific gravity at the surface was lower and the material, as in the moon, easily thrown up by explosive movements.

This entire superficial structure would disappear at the beginning of the aqueous epoch, when the heat of the equatorial regions, augmented with the mass, and now co-operating with solar influence, began to liquefy the ice formed by meteoric gases in the atmosphere, and by flowing water to erode the volcanic slopes and fill up the trenches.

We cannot yet determine the degree of gravitating force required in a planet for the formation of an atmosphere and an ocean. The atmosphere of Mars is clearly made out by his snows, although the weight of bodies at his surface is nearly one half less than at the earth’s ; while that of the moon is only one twelfth. The gravity of bodies at the sun’s surface, on the contrary, is twenty-eight times greater than at the earth’s, and the gaseous atmosphere of the sun is now considered to be of great depth.

Jupiter ranks above the earth in this particular, and is supposed, upon telescopic evidence, to be furnished with a cloudy atmosphere of very grand proportions. But the ocean of Jupiter is probably suspended in his atmosphere by heat of surface due to augmented mass.

With the beginning of the aqueous epoch everything terrestrial changes its condition. Volcanic scoria and ashes are converted into Sedimentary rocks. But nothing occurs that we do not see daily occurring on a much grander scale. The weight of water was less than at present, and its plastic action slower ; all the physical agents moved to their work, and proceeded in the development of terrestrial forms, with more deliberation and less vigor than at present.

The meteoric feed of matter is now cast freely and rapidly over the globe, because of the augmented attractive force of the earth. The constant addition of fresh material increases terrestrial gravitation, and meteors are drawn in with greater frequency. If at any period preceding historic dates, the meteoric shower — which falls continually, though with great variations of quantity —was more abundant than at present, it may have been because the solar system, vibrating through space, passed into regions visited by denser clouds of dark matter.

This may have occurred at long intervals of time, and would have various effects, one of which would be a sensible perturbation of the orbits.

A supposition of this kind is in keeping with known conditions of astronomy, and may by and by assume a positive shape. It is reasonable to suppose that the dark matter is not equally distributed in space ; and, as its sameness with cometary substance is admitted, we may believe that vortices, with heliocentric orbits, are not the only sources of dark matter.

Let us suppose that the solar system moves into the influence of an enormously extended dark nebula. This extended dust cloud is cold beyond conception, — a fathomless abyss of cold. It would strike a chill into the system. The earth would be covered with blankets of snow, generating glaciers ; and these would remain until the exhaustive influence had gone by, as a protection against it This idea, although conjectural, is not in discord with any known conditions. We know of no reason why dark matter may not be accumulated in certain parts of space. That such vortices have existed is certain, since planetary and solar systems have been formed by them, and it is not certain that others may not be in progress. Causes of variation of another kind must be invoked to account for the existence of a tropical climate in arctic regions, at an epoch preceding the ice period ; unless we try to account for them by the passage of the solar system through or near nebulous masses of a mild temperature. Suppositions like these appear crude and hasty ; though in time they may become rational, when strengthened by sound analogies.

A complete interchange of matter has been many times made between the interior and surface of the globe. Earthy substance, taken from arctic regions by oceanic currents, has continually raised a belt of land on either side of the equator. This deposit, being always in excess of what is needed to preserve the formal equilibrium of the plastic globe, will constantly depress the equatorial belt, and thrust out the arctic regions as they are abraded. By this process, in certain regions of deep sea is produced a revolution of matter downward and outward from the equator toward each of the poles. But the movement, working from age to age over successive meridians, must be subject to large inequalities.

The continents, worn away coastwise by the ocean, and by rain and glaciers, will naturally rise as the oceanic areas are overloaded. Again, any inequality of the oceanic deposit in latitude, must cause a rotative movement of the mass. If the inequality is upon one side of the equator, the mass must shift upon its centre. The problem is purely mechanical, and capable of analysis.

Conjecture and mathematics have been exhausted upon the polar-movement hypothesis ; but as yet, the basal fact, the unequal delivery of sediments in latitude, which alone can make it tenable, has not been clearly indicated as the cause. A movement of the mass in revolution is, under certain conditions, a good explanation of the appearance of tropical remains in arctic regions, and very natural and common causes for it appear to exist. Since there is no constancy in any terrestrial condition, we have only to surmise the fact, in such cases, and then seek conditions that may control it.

Tire appearance of organic life upon the earth (a phenomenon of which the limits may now be relatively determined) must have been after an increase of mass, and warmth, in support of aqueous solution, coactive with solar influence.

When the earth had water, air soil, and warmth near its equator, life might appear ; as the soul of man appears when the brain is completed wherein it may take root and grow. But the human animal seems not at once to have been fitted for the support of a spiritual organization. Science comes forward to assure us, that the process of organic development has been a continued evolution from the less to the greater. We must admit, with Lyell, that natural causes, as we see them, were not exaggerated in the past. We must even exceed that judgment ; for if one of these present causes be considered, the failing of meteors, — of which geology has made no account as yet, — we find that the earth has been always increasing, and must at one time have been too small and cold to sustain life. The inference is inevitable that terrestrial motors were not as active in the past as they are at present. Contortions of strata and elevations of continents, like those that are now in progress, may have consumed many thousands and millions of years more, for equal results, in ancient than in recent periods. There must have been a time without liquidity and without the present atmospheric pressure. There was a time when vegetation on the vast scale of the tropics, as we now observe it, was not so active in its work. The appearance of an excess of vegetation marks the close of the larger systems of stratification ; but the rules of deduction indicated lead us to conclude, that, during the more recent ages, — be it the last million of years,—organic life has been more active than at any previous epoch. All the natural movements have become more active; because the mass and force of the earth, together with its temperature, have been augmented ; and it will not be denied by physiologists that these causes will have refined and intensified the products of vitality. The fulcrum of transition from the grosser to the more concentrated forms of life exists in fact, and may be found in the method of formation of the earth itself.

The earth is progressing by excessively slow changes toward the solar and nebulous condition. Its history is a repetition of the solar, and a time must arrive when the surface, becoming incandescent, will be obscured only by casual dark pits in a brilliant atmosphere, a souvenir of the present darkness of the crust ; yet during a certain period, within fixed limits of gravitating force and heat of mass, the human race may continue to exist ; progressing, we may suppose, in force and fineness of organization. The race will perish, perhaps, in the order of nature, by failure or insufficient number of offspring, a principal cause of the extinction of superior races. The earth must become lone and voiceless long before the incandescence of the crust. Science may follow it into the condition of an attendant star, and then of an expanding nebula.

In the cosmos all movements are cyclical, and recurrent, without change save interchange among forms of motion. A universe which is, in its total, the same to-day as yesterday and always, would appear idle and dull if it were not the footstool of Divine force, upon which the creative will maintains a certain equipoise, necessary to the continued production of spiritual forms.