a world only twelve miles in diameter

CHAPTER VI

_JUPITER, THE GREATEST OF KNOWN WORLDS_ 160

Jupiter compared with our globe--His swift rotation on his
axis--Remarkable lack of density--The force of gravity on
Jupiter--Wonderful clouds--Strange phenomena of the great
belts--Brilliant display of colors--The great red spot
and the many theories it has given rise to--Curious facts
about the varying rates of rotation of the huge planet's
surface--The theory of a hidden world in Jupiter--When
Jupiter was a companion star to the sun--The miracle of
world-making before our eyes--Are Jupiter's satellites
habitable?--Magnificent spectacles in the Jovian system

CHAPTER VII

_SATURN, A PRODIGY AMONG PLANETS_ 185

The wonder of the great rings--Saturn's great distance and
long year--The least dense of all the planets--It would
float in water--What kind of a world is it?--Sir Humphry
Davy's imaginary inhabitants of Saturn--Facts about the
rings, which are a phenomenon unparalleled in the visible
universe--The surprising nature of the rings, as revealed
by mathematics and the spectroscope--The question of their
origin and ultimate fate--Dr. Dick's idea of their
habitability--Swedenborg's curious description of the
appearance of the rings from Saturn--Is Saturn a globe of
vapor, or of dust?--The nine satellites and "Roche's
limit"--The play of spectacular shadows in the Saturnian
system--Uranus and Neptune--Is there a yet undiscovered
planet greater than Jupiter?

CHAPTER VIII

_THE MOON, CHILD OF THE EARTH AND THE SUN_ 212

The moon a favorite subject for intellectual speculation--Its
nearness to the earth graphically illustrated--Ideas of the
ancients--Galileo's discoveries--What first raised a serious
question as to its habitability--Singularity of the moon's
motions--Appearance of its surface to the naked eye and with
the telescope--The "seas" and the wonderful mountains and
craters--A terrible abyss described--Tycho's mysterious
rays--Difference between lunar and terrestrial
volcanoes--Mountain-ringed valleys--Gigantic cracks in the
lunar globe--Slight force of gravity of the moon and some
interesting deductions--The moon a world of giantism--What
kind of atmospheric