CHAPTER XVII - SHOOTING STARS

Summary

In the preceding chapters we have dealt with the gigantic bodies which form the chief objects in what we know as the solar system. We have studied mighty planets measuring thousands of miles in diameter, and we have followed the movements of comets, whose dimensions are to be told by millions of miles. Once, indeed, in a previous chapter, we have made a descent to objects much lower in the scale of magnitude, and we have examined that numerous class of small bodies which we call the minor planets. It is now, however, our duty to make a still further, and this time a very long step, downwards in the scale of magnitude. Even the minor planets must be regarded as colossal objects, when compared with those little bodies whose presence is revealed to us in a most interesting, and sometimes in a most striking manner.

These small bodies compensate in some degree for their minute size, by the enormous profusion in which they exist. No attempt, indeed, could be made to tell in figures the myriads in which they swarm throughout space. They are probably of very varied dimensions, some of them∧ being many pounds or perhaps tons in weight, while others seem to be not larger than pebbles, or even than grains of sand. Yet, insignificant as these bodies may seem, the great sun himself does not disdain to accept their control. Each particle, whether it be as small as the mote in a sunbeam or as mighty as the planet Jupiter, will perform its path around the sun in conformity with the laws of Kepler.