THE
SOLAR SYSTEM
Six Lectures
DELIVERED AT THE MASSACHUSETTS
INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
IN DECEMBER, 1902
BY
PERCIVAL LOWELL
NON-RESIDENT PROFESSOR OF ASTRONOMY AT THE
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
AND DIRECTOR OF THE LOWELL OBSER-
VATORY, FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1903
Copyright, 1903,
By PERCIVAL LOWELL.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published May, 1903.
CONTENTS
chap | page | |
I. | Our Solar System | 1 |
II. | Mercury | 27 |
III. | Mars | 47 |
IV. | Saturn and its System | 72 |
V. | Jupiter and his Comets | 94 |
VI. | Cosmogony | 116 |
ELEMENTS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM | ||
table | ||
I. | Orbital Elements | facing 134 |
II. | Bodily Elements | facing 134 |
ERRATA
Page 23, line 8.
- For read
Page 74, line 18.
- For Pierce read Peirce.
Page 104, second line under diagram.
- For P read O.
Page 123, line i.
- After momentum insert projected at right angles to it.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE | ||
Inner Planets |
4 | |
Outer Planets |
5 | |
Diagram |
7 | |
Meteor Streams |
14 | |
Conspicuous Comets |
19 | |
Mercury Triad of Drawings |
30 | |
Libration in Longtitude |
31 | |
Perturbative Action—Exemplifying the Origin of the Tides |
36 | |
Map of Mars |
57 | |
Drawings showing Identity between Canals and Rifts in the Polar Cap |
63 | |
Saturn's Rings |
79 | |
Position of Masses in Satellite Systems |
85 | |
Inclinations of Satellite Orbits to Primary's Equator |
87 | |
Jupiter's Family of Comets |
100 | |
Relative Orbits |
104 | |
Action of Jupiter |
107 | |
Comet Aphelia |
114 | |
Diagram |
123 | |
Faye's Laws of Attraction in Condensing Nebula |
125 | |
Successive Curves of Attraction in Condensing Nebula |
126 | |
Diagram |
127 | |
Axis Inclinations of the Major Planets |
131 |

This work was published before January 1, 1927, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.