The Nebular Theory: Many Applications of the Theory

The Earth's Beginning by Robert S. Ball is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION

The Earth’s Beginning—The Nebular Theory—Many Applications of the Theory—The Founders of the Doctrine—Kant, Laplace, William Herschel: Their Different Methods of Work—The Vastness of the Problem—Voltaire’s Fable—The Oak-Tree—The Method of Studying the Subject—Inadequacy of our Time Conceptions.

I try in these lectures to give some account of an exceptionally great subject—a subject, I ought rather to say, of sublime magnificence. It may, I believe, be affirmed without exaggeration that the theme which is to occupy our attention represents the most daring height to which the human intellect has ever ventured to soar in its efforts to understand the great operations of Nature. The earth’s beginning relates to phenomena of such magnitude and importance that the temporary concerns which usually engage our thoughts must be forgotten in its presence. Our personal affairs, the affairs of the nation, and of the empire—indeed, of all nations and of all empires—nay, even all human affairs, past, present, and to come, shrink into utter insignificance when we are to consider the majestic subject of the evolution of that solar system of which our earth forms a part. We shall obtain a glimpse of what that evolution has been in the mighty chapter of the book of Nature on which we are now to enter.

The nebular theory discloses the beginning of this earth itself. It points out the marvellous process by which from original chaos the firm globe on which we stand was gradually evolved. It shows how the foundations of this solid earth have been laid, and how it is that we have land to tread on and air to breathe. But the subject has a scope far wider than merely in its relation to our earth. The nebular theory accounts for the beginning of that great and glorious orb the sun, which presides over the system of revolving planets, guides them in their paths, illuminates them with its light, and stimulates the activities of their inhabitants with its genial warmth. The nebular theory explains how it comes about that the sun still continues in these latter days to shine with the brilliance and warmth that it had throughout the past ages of human history and the vastly greater periods of geological time. Then, as another supreme achievement, it discloses the origin of the planets which accompany the sun, and shows how they have come to run their mighty courses; and it tells us how revolving satellites have been associated with the planets. The nebular theory has, indeed, a remarkable relation to all objects belonging to that wonderful scheme which we call the solar system.

It should also be noticed that the nebular theory often brings facts of the most diverse character into striking apposition. As it accounts for the continued maintenance of the solar radiation, so it also accounts for that beneficent rotation by which each continent, after the enjoyment of a day under the invigorating rays of the sun, passes in due alternation into the repose of night. The nebular theory is ready with an explanation of the marvellous structure revealed in the rings of Saturn, and it shows at the same time how the volcanoes of the moon acquired their past phenomenal activity, and why, after ages of activity, they have now at last become extinct. With equal versatility the nebular theory will explain why a collier experiences increasing heat as he descends the coalpit, and why the planet Jupiter is marked with those belts which have so much interest for the astronomer. The nebular theory offers an immediate explanation of the earthquake which wrought such awful destruction at Lisbon, while it also points out the cause of that healing warmth of the waters at Bath. Above all, the nebular theory explains that peerless discovery of cosmical chemistry which declares that those particular elements of which the sun is composed are no other than the elements which form the earth beneath our feet.

When a doctrine of such transcendent importance is proposed for our acceptance, it is fitting that we should look, in the first instance, to the source from which the doctrine has emanated. It would already have made good its claim to most careful hearing, though not perhaps to necessary acceptance, if it came to us bearing credentials which prove it to be the outcome of the thought and research of one endowed with the highest order of intellect. If the nebular theory had been propounded by only a single great leader of thought, the sublimity of the subject with which it deals would have compelled the attention of those who love to study the book of Nature. If it had appeared that a second investigator, also famous for the loftiest intellectual achievement, had given to the nebular theory the sanction of his name, a very much stronger claim for its consideration would at once have been established. If it should further appear that yet a third philosopher, a man who was also an intellectual giant, had been conducted to somewhat similar conclusions, we should admit, I need hardly say, that the argument had been presented with still further force. It may also be observed that there might even be certain conditions in the work of the three philosophers which would make for additional strength in the cause advocated; if it should be found that each of the great men of science had arrived at the same conclusion irrespective of the others, and, indeed, in total ignorance of the line of thought which his illustrious compeers were pursuing, this would, of course, be in itself a corroboration. If, finally, the methods of research adopted by these investigators had been wholly different, although converging to the establishment of the theory, then even the most sceptical might be disposed to concede the startling claim which the theory made upon his reason and his imagination.

All the conditions that I have assumed have been fulfilled in the presentation of the nebular theory to the scientific world. It would not be possible to point to three names more eminent in their respective branches of knowledge than those of Kant, Laplace, and William Herschel. Kant occupies a unique position by the profundity and breadth of his philosophical studies; Laplace applied the great discoveries of Newton to the investigation of the movements of the heavenly bodies, publishing the results in his immortal work, Mécanique Céleste; Herschel has been the greatest and the most original observer of the heavens since the telescope was invented. It is not a little remarkable that the great philosopher from his profound meditation, the great mathematician from a life devoted to calculations about the laws of Nature, the great observer from sounding the depths of the firmament, should each in the pursuit of his own line of work have been led to believe that the grand course of Nature is essentially expressed by the nebular theory. There have been differences of detail in the three theories; indeed, there have been differences in points which are by no means unimportant. This was unavoidable in the case of workers along lines so distinct, and of a subject where many of the elements were still unknown, as indeed many are still. Even at the present day no man can give a complete account of what has happened in the great evolution. But the monumental fact remains that these three most sagacious men of science, whose lives were devoted to the pursuit of knowledge, each approaching the subject from his own direction, each pursuing his course in ignorance of what the others were doing, were substantially led to the same result. The progress of knowledge since the time when these great men lived has confirmed, in ways which we shall endeavour to set forth, the sublime doctrine to which their genius had conducted them.

Immanuel Kant, whose grandfather was a Scotsman, was born in 1724 at Königsberg, where his life was spent as a professor in the University, and where he died in 1804. In the announcement of the application of the principle of evolution to the solar system, Laplace was preceded by this great German philosopher. The profound thinker who expounded the famous doctrine of time and space did not disdain to allow his attention to be also occupied with things more material than the subtleties of metaphysical investigation. As a natural philosopher Kant was much in advance of his time. His speculations on questions relating to the operations in progress in the material universe are in remarkable conformity with what is now accepted as the result of modern investigation. Kant outlined with a firmness inspired by genius that nebular theory to which Laplace subsequently and independently gave a more definite form, and which now bears his name.

Kant’s famous work with which we are now concerned appeared in 1755. In it he laid down the immortal principle of the nebular theory. The greatness of this book is acknowledged by all who have read it, and notwithstanding that the progress of knowledge has made it obvious that many of the statements it contains must now receive modification, Kant’s work contains the essential principle affirming that the earth, the sun, the planets, and all the bodies now forming the solar system did really originate from a vast contracting nebula. In later years Kant’s attention was diverted from these physical questions to that profound system of philosophy with which his name is chiefly associated. The nebular theory is therefore to be regarded as incidental to Kant’s great lifework rather than as forming a very large and important part of it.

1.  We are now fortunately able to refer the English reader to the work of Professor W. Hastie, D.D., entitled “Kant’s Cosmogony,” Glasgow, 1900. Kant’s most interesting career is charmingly described in De Quincey’s “Last Days of Immanuel Kant.”

IMMANUEL KANT.
(From an old Print.)

At the close of the last century, while France was in the throes of the Revolution, a school of French mathematicians was engaged in the accomplishment of a task which marked an epoch in the history of human thought. Foremost among the mathematicians who devoted their energies to the discussion of the great problems of the universe was the illustrious Laplace. As a personal friend of Napoleon, Laplace received marked distinction from the Emperor, who was himself enough of a mathematician to be able to estimate at their true value the magnificent results to which Laplace was conducted.

It was at the commencement of Kant’s career, and before his great lifework in metaphysics was undertaken, that he was led to his nebular theory of the solar system. In the case of Laplace, on the other hand, the nebular theory was not advanced until the close of the great work of his life. The Mécanique Céleste had been written, and the fame of its author had been established for all time; and then in a few pages of a subsequent volume, called the Système du Monde, he laid down his famous nebular theory. In that small space he gave a wonderful outline of the history of the solar system. He had not read that history in any books or manuscripts; he had not learned it from any ancient inscriptions; he had taken it direct from the great book of Nature.

Influenced by the caution so characteristic of one whose life had been devoted entirely to the pursuit of the most accurate of all the sciences, Laplace accompanied his announcement of the nebular theory with becoming words of warning. The great philosopher pointed out that there are two methods of discovering the truths of astronomy. Some truths may be discovered by observing the heavenly bodies with telescopes, by measuring with every care their dimensions and their positions, and by following their movements with assiduous watchfulness. But there is another totally different method which has enabled many remarkable discoveries to be made in astronomy; for discoveries may be made by mathematical calculations which have as their basis the numerical facts obtained by actual observation. This mathematical method often yields results far more profound than any which can be obtained by the astronomer’s telescope. The pen of the mathematician is indeed an instrument which sometimes anticipates revelations that are subsequently confirmed by actual observation. It is an instrument which frequently performs the highly useful task of checking the deductions that might too hastily be drawn from telescopic observations. It is an instrument the scope of whose discoveries embraces regions immeasurably beyond the reach of the greatest telescope. The pen of the mathematician can give us information as to events which took place long before telescopes came into existence—nay, even unnumbered ages prior to the advent of man on this earth.

Laplace was careful to say that the nebular theory which he sketched must necessarily be judged by a standard different from that which we apply to astronomical truths revealed by telescopic observation or ascertained by actual calculation. The nebular theory, said the great French mathematician, has to be received with caution, inasmuch as from the nature of the case it cannot be verified by observation, nor does it admit of proof possessing mathematical certainty.

A large part of these lectures will be devoted to the evidence bearing upon this famous doctrine. Let it suffice here to remark that the quantity of evidence now available is vastly greater than it was a hundred years ago, and furthermore, that there are lines of evidence which can now be followed which were wholly undreamt of in the days of Kant and Laplace. The particular canons laid down by Laplace, to which we have just referred, are perhaps not regarded as so absolutely binding in modern days. If we were to reject belief in everything which cannot be proved either by the testimony of actual eye-witnesses or by strict mathematical deductions, it would, I fear, fare badly with not a few great departments of modern science. It will not be necessary to do more at present than just to mention, in illustration of this, the great doctrine of the evolution of life, which accounts for the existing races of plants and animals, including even man himself. I need hardly say that the Darwinian theory, which claims that man has come by lineal descent from animals of a lower type, admits of no proof by mathematics; it receives assuredly no direct testimony from eye witnesses; and yet the fact that man has so descended is, I suppose, now almost universally admitted.

In the case of the great German philosopher, as well as in the case of the great French mathematician, the enunciation and the promulgation of their nebular theories were merely incidental to the important scientific undertakings with which their respective lives were mainly occupied. The relation of the nebular theory to the main lifework of the third philosopher I have named, has been somewhat different. When William Herschel constructed the telescopes with which, in conjunction with his illustrious sister, he conducted his long night-watches, he discovered thousands of new nebulæ; he may, in fact, be said to have created nebular astronomy as we now know it. Ever meditating on the objects which his telescopes brought to light, ever striving to sound the mysteries of the universe, Herschel perceived that between a nebula which was merely a diffused stain of light on the sky, and an object which was hardly distinguishable from a star with a slight haze around it, every intermediate grade could be found. In this way he was led to the splendid discovery which announced the gradual transformation of nebulæ into stars. We have already noted how the profound mathematician was conducted to a view of the origin of the solar system which was substantially identical with that which had been arrived at by the consummate metaphysician. The interest is greatly increased when we find that similar conclusions were drawn independently from the telescopic work of the most diligent and most famous astronomical observer who has ever lived. Not from abstract speculation like Kant, not from mathematical suggestion like Laplace, but from accurate and laborious study of the heavens was the great William Herschel led to the conception of the nebular theory of evolution.

That three different men of science, approaching the study of perhaps the greatest problem which Nature offers us from points of view so fundamentally different, should have been led substantially to the same result, is a remarkable incident in the history of knowledge. Surely the theory introduced under such auspices and sustained by such a weight of testimony has the very strongest claim on our attention and respect.

In the discussion on which we are about to enter in these lectures we must often be prepared to make a special effort of the imagination to help us to realise how greatly the scale of the operations on which the attention is fixed transcends that of the phenomena with which our ordinary affairs are concerned. Our eyes can explore a region of space which, however vast, must still be only infinitesimal in comparison with the extent of space itself. Notwithstanding all that telescopes can do for us, our knowledge of the universe must be necessarily restricted to a mere speck in space, a speck which bears to the whole of space a ratio less—we might perhaps say infinitely less—than that which the area of a single daisy bears to the area of the continent where that daisy blooms. But we need not repine at this limitation; a whole life devoted to the study of a daisy would not be long enough to explore all the mysteries of its life. In like manner the duration of the human race would not be long enough to explore adequately even that small part of space which is submitted for our examination.

But it is not merely the necessary limits of our senses which restrict our opportunities for the study of the great phenomena of the universe. Man’s life is too short for the purpose. That our days are but a span is the commonplace of the preacher. But it is a commonplace specially brought home to us in the study of the nebular theory. A man of fourscore will allude to his life as a long one, and no doubt it may be considered long in relation to the ordinary affairs of our abode on earth; but what is a period of eighty years in the history of the formation of a solar system in the great laboratory of the universe? Such a period then seems to be but a trifle—it is nothing. Eighty years may be long enough to witness the growth of children and grandchildren; but it is too short for a single heartbeat in the great life of Nature. Even the longest lifetime is far too brief to witness a perceptible advance in the grand transformation. The periods of time demanded in the great evolution shadowed forth by the nebular theory utterly transcend our ordinary notions of chronology. The dates at which supreme events occurred in the celestial evolution are immeasurably more remote than any other dates which we are ever called upon to consider in other departments of science. The time of the story on which we are to be engaged is earlier, far earlier, than any date we have ever learned at school, or have ever forgotten since. The incidents of that period took place long before any date was written in figures—earlier than any of those very ancient dates which the geologists indicate not by figures indeed, but by creatures whose remains imbedded in the rocks suffice to give a character to the period referred to. The geologist will specify one epoch as that in which the fossilized bone of some huge extinct reptile was part of a living animal; he may specify another by the statement that the shell of some beautiful ammonite was then inhabited by a living form which swam in the warm primæval seas. The date of our story has at least this much certainty: that it is prior—immeasurably prior—to the time when that marvellous thing which we call life first came into being.

Voltaire has an instructive fable which I cannot resist repeating. It will serve, at all events, to bring before us the way in which the lapse of time ought to be regarded by one who desires to view the great operations of Nature in their proper proportions. He tells how an inhabitant of the star Sirius went forth on a voyage of exploration through the remote depths of space. In the course of his travels he visited many other worlds, and at length reached Saturn, that majestic orb, which revolved upon the frontier of the solar system, as then known. Alighting on the ringed globe for rest and investigation, the Sirian wanderer, in quest of knowledge, was successful in obtaining an interview with a stately inhabitant of Saturn who enjoyed the reputation of exceptional learning and wisdom. The Sirian hoped to have some improving conversation with this sage who dwelt on a globe so utterly unlike his own, and who had such opportunities of studying the majestic processes of Nature in remote parts of the universe. He thought perhaps they might be able to compare instructive notes about the constitution of the suns and systems in their respective neighbourhoods. The visitor accordingly prattled away gaily. He opened all his little store of knowledge about the Milky Way, about the Great Bear, and about the great Nebula in Orion; and then pausing, he asked what the Saturnian had to communicate in reply. But the philosopher remained silent. Eagerly pressed to make some response, the grave student who dwelt on the frontier globe at last said in effect: “Sirian, I can tell you but little of Nature. I can tell you indeed nothing that is really worthy of the great theme which Nature proposes; for the grand operations of Nature are very slow; they are so slow that the great transformations in progress around us would have to be watched for a very long time before they could be properly understood. To observe Nature so as to perceive what is really happening, it would be necessary to have a long life; but the lives of the inhabitants of Saturn are not long; none of us ever lives more than fifteen thousand years.”

Change is the order of Nature. Many changes no doubt take place rapidly, but the great changes by which the system has been wrought into its present form, those profound changes which have produced results of the greatest magnificence in celestial architecture are extremely slow. We should make a huge mistake if we imagined that changes—even immense changes—are not in progress, merely because our brief day is too short a period wherein to perceive them.

On the village green stands an oak-tree, a veteran which some say dates from the time of William the Conqueror, but which all agree must certainly have been a magnificent piece of timber in the days of Queen Elizabeth. The children play under that tree just as their parents and their grandparents did before them. A year, a few years, even a lifetime, may show no appreciable changes in a tree of such age and stature. Its girth does not perceptibly increase in such a period. But suppose that a butterfly whose life lasts but a day or two were to pass his little span in and about this venerable oak. He would not be able to perceive any changes in the tree during the insignificant period over which his little life extended. Not alone the mighty trunk and the branches, but even the very foliage itself would seem essentially the same in the minutes of the butterfly’s extreme old age as they did in the time of his life’s meridian or at the earliest moment of his youth. To the observations of a spectator who viewed it under such ephemeral conditions the oak-tree would appear steadfast, and might incautiously be deemed eternal. If the butterfly could reflect on the subject, he might perhaps argue that there could not be any change in progress in the oak-tree, because although he had observed it carefully all his life he could not detect any certain alteration. He might therefore not improbably draw the preposterous conclusion that the oak-tree must always have been just as large and just as green as he had invariably known it; and he might also infer that just as the oak-tree is now, so will it remain for all time.

Fig. 2.—A Faint Diffused Nebulosity (n.g.c. 1499; in Perseus).
(Photographed by Dr. Isaac Roberts, F.R.S.)

In our study of the heavens we must strive to avoid inferences so utterly fallacious as these which I have here tried to illustrate. Let it be granted that to our superficial view the sun and the moon, the stars and the constellations present features which appear to us as eternal as the bole of the oak seemed to the butterfly. But though the sun may seem to us always of the same size and always of the same lustre, it would be quite wrong to infer that the lustre and size of the sun are in truth unchanging. The sun is no more unchanging than the oak-tree is eternal. The sun and the earth, no less than the other bodies of the universe, are in process of a transformation no less astonishing than that wonderful transformation which in the course of centuries develops an acorn into the giant of the forest. We could not indeed with propriety apply to the great transformation of the sun the particular word growth; the character of the solar transformation cannot be so described. The oak-tree, of course, enlarges with its years, while the sun, on the other hand, is becoming smaller. The resemblance between the sun and the oak-tree extends no further than that a transformation is taking place in each. The rate at which each transformation is effected is but slow; the growth of the oak is too slow to be perceived in a day or two; the contraction of the sun is too slow to be appreciable within the centuries of human history.

Whatever the butterfly’s observation might have suggested with regard to the eternity of the oak, we know there was a time when that oak-tree was not, and we know that a time will come when that oak-tree will no longer be. In like manner we know there was a time when the solar system was utterly different from the solar system as we see it now; and we know that a time will come when the solar system will be utterly different from that which we see at present. The mightiest changes are most certainly in progress around us. We must not deem them non-existent, merely because they elude our scrutiny, for our senses may not be quick enough to perceive the small extent of some of these changes within our limited period of observation. The intellect in such a case confers on man a power of surveying Nature with a penetration immeasurably beyond that afforded by his organs of sense.

Fig. 3.—The Crab Nebula (n.g.c. 1952; in Taurus).
(Photographed by Dr. Isaac Roberts, F.R.S)

That the great oak-tree which has lived for centuries sprang from an acorn no one can doubt; but what is the evidence on which we believe this to have been the origin of a veteran of the forest when history and tradition are both silent? In the absence of authentic documents to trace the growth of that oak-tree from the beginning, how do we know that it sprouted from an acorn? The only reason we have for believing that the oak-tree has gone through this remarkable development is deduced from the observation of other oak-trees. We know the acorn that has just sprouted; we know the young sapling as thick as a walking stick; we know the vigorous young tree as stout as a man’s arm or as his body; we know the tree when it first approaches the dignity of being called timber; we can therefore observe different trees grade by grade in a continuous succession from the acorn to the monarch of five centuries. No one doubts for a moment that the growth as witnessed in the stages exhibited by several different trees, gives a substantially accurate picture of the development of any individual tree. Such is the nature of one of the arguments which we apply to the great problem before us. We are to study what the solar system has been in the course of its history by the stages which we witness at the present moment in the evolution of other systems throughout the universe. We cannot indeed read the history in time, but we can read it in space.

The mighty transformation through which the solar system has passed, and is even now at this moment passing, cannot be actually beheld by us poor creatures of a day. It might perhaps be surveyed by beings whose pulses counted centuries, as our pulses count seconds, by beings whose minutes lasted longer than the dynasties of human history, by beings to whom a year was comparable with the period since the earth was young, and since life began to move in the waters.

May I, with all reverence, try to attune our thoughts to the time conceptions required in this mighty theme by quoting those noble lines of the hymn—

“A thousand ages in Thy sight

Are like an evening gone,

Short as the watch that ends the night,

Before the rising sun.”

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