It is rather curious to what extent we have a feeling of kinship with Neptune, notwithstanding he dwells forever in far-off space where we cannot expect even to have a glimpse of him without the aid of a telescope. Uranus, the other very distant planet, is so nearly within the limit of ordinary vision that we have always a hope that, by some lucky chance of situation or atmosphere, we may some day be able to see him face to face, and know for ourselves what manner of planet this is which, though a member of our own cosmic family, remains always just beyond easy exchange of glances with us; and so we in a measure keep a lookout for him that gives us a sense of his reality. With Neptune there can be no feeling of this sort to keep us with a lively interest in him, and yet he is hardly less real to us than Uranus, and we have a more intimate sense Close as Neptune is to us in kinship and distance, as astronomical distances go, we never knew of his existence until sixty-six years ago. He is to us almost a recent arrival in the solar domain, but we know that he has been here as long as we have; and whether he was detached before we were from the great nebula which gave birth to us all, or at about the same time, we know that for long ages before there were eyes on the earth to see him he was, as he still is, circling slowly and majestically around our common center of control. The discovery of Neptune in 1846 created truly a sensation in astronomical circles. And, unlike most sensational happenings, it The result of Adams’s work was announced to the Astronomer Royal in England in the Although the planet was actually discovered by following the directions of Leverrier, it was found that it might have been seen months before if the English astronomers had shown more promptness in using the computations of Adams; and there has always been a disposition among astronomers, both in France and in England, to give both men credit for their extraordinary achievement, though, naturally, there is somewhat more stress laid upon the work of The mean distance of Neptune from the sun is more than two and a half billion miles (2,790,000,000), and his orbit is so nearly circular that the variation between his perihelion and aphelion distance is only about fifty million miles. His orbit is, in fact, less eccentric than that of any other planet except Venus. His immense distance from the sun, of course, deprives him of any great amount of heat or light from that source as compared with the other planets. The sun would appear to an observer on Neptune a little smaller than Venus appears to us. But so great is the intensity of its radiance that even as so diminutive a sun as Of the heat the planet has, either inherent or acquired from the sun, we do not know much. The normal temperature at that distance from the sun would be more than three hundred and sixty degrees below zero, Fahrenheit, and there is not much to indicate in what state the planet is with reference to its own heat. Investigations thus far made do not show it to be so intensely hot as Jupiter and Saturn undoubtedly are; but with its heavily vapor-laden atmosphere it could not have the frigidity normal to a black, unprotected body at its distance from the sun. Neptune is thought to have an immense atmosphere, and, like the other outer planets, one of a composition not wholly familiar to us. Consequently we do not know as yet just what this atmosphere does for the planet. It has a fairly good reflecting power, though the planet, on the whole, is darker That Neptune has made greater progress toward solidity (though it is still very far from that state) than the other outer planets is suggested also by its size; for, as we have seen, the smaller planets develop more rapidly than the larger ones. The diameter of Neptune is a little less than thirty thousand (29,827) miles. The planet is somewhat smaller, therefore, than Uranus, and much smaller than Jupiter or Saturn. But as compared with the earth, the largest of the inner planets, it is a vastly greater body. Its mass is seventeen times more than that of the earth; its surface is as much as sixteen times more extensive than the earth’s; and its volume is more than eighty times greater than the volume of the earth. Of the time of Neptune’s rotation on its axis very little is known. That little, however, indicates a slower rotation than the Being so far from the sun, Neptune moves, of course, very slowly in comparison with the nearer planets, though his speed is at the rate of three and a half miles a second, which, after all, does not denote any high degree of sluggishness. His change of posi When Neptune was discovered he had just left the constellation Capricornus, and in the sixty-six years that his movements have been followed he has passed through Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, and is now (1912) in Gemini, very near Castor and Pollux. The time required for his circuit around the sun is nearly one hundred and sixty-five (164.6) years, so that he remains for about thirteen years in each constellation. He will complete one sidereal period, dating from the time of his discovery, in the year 2011. The apparent motion of Neptune is direct a little more than six months in the year, and retrograde a little more than five months, so that it seems to present the old mental arithmetic problem of the climber that fell back so much every time after he had climbed a certain number of feet. But the falling back in the case of Neptune is an illusion, as we know. He keeps straight on in his journey, as we may see if we watch him from year to year, and his change of position Neptune is as bright as an eighth-magnitude star, and it is possible to see him with a good field-glass. The difficulty is in distinguishing him from a star, for his disc does not show except through a telescope. If one has such a glass, however, it will be worth while to direct it toward that part of the ecliptic just under Castor and Pollux any time within the next two or three years, and a sight of this yet strange brother planet may be the reward. He will be in opposition on January 14, 1913, and thereafter about two days later each year. |