Page:A Voyage in Space (1913).djvu/200

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180
A VOYAGE IN SPACE

satellite of Saturn in 1899. Stimulated by this last, Professor Perrine, of the Lick Observatory, gave America the credit of two more satellites to Jupiter in 1904, making the score England 7, America 7, as you will see by the following table.

Discoveries Of Satellites
Date. Mars. Jupiter. Saturn. Uranus. Neptune.  
To 1685   4 5     Foreign
1787 2 2 England
1789
1848 1 America
1846 2 1 England
1851
1877 2 America
1892 1 America
1899 1 America
1904 2 America
1908 1 England
1914[1] 1 America
  2 9 9 4 1  

Score: Foreigners 9; England 8; America 8.

Now, who was to kick the next goal? I am glad to say that Mr. Melotte, of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, scored for England by finding an eighth satellite to Jupiter in 1908. The Astronomer Royal has kindly lent for your inspection this beautiful model of Jupiter and his eight satellite orbits. The four found by Galileo are comparatively close to Jupiter, but the sharp eyes of Professor Barnard found one inside them—a very faint one—in 1892.

  1. The discovery of Mr. Nicholson in 1914 again brings the score level.