r mythological divinities--Ceres, Pallas, Juno,
Vesta, etc., but as they rapidly increased in number, it was found
necessary to call them by modern, terrestrial names, and more than one
daughter of Eve, the Egeria of some astronomer, now has her name
inscribed in the Heavens. The first minor planet was discovered on the
first day of the nineteenth century, January 1, 1801, by Piazzi,
astronomer at Palermo. While he was observing the small stars in the
constellation of the Bull beneath the clear Sicilian skies, this famous
astronomer noticed one that he had never seen before.

The next night, directing his telescope to the same part of the Heavens,
he perceived that the fair unknown had moved her station, and the
observations of the following days left him no doubt as to the nature of
the visitor: she was a planet, a wandering star among the
constellations, revolving round the Sun. This newcomer was registered
under the name of Ceres.

Since that epoch several hundreds of them have been discovered,
occupying a zone that extends over a space of more than 400 million
kilometers (249,000,000 miles). These celestial globules are invisible
to the naked eye, but no year passes without new and numerous recruits
being added to the already important catalogue of these minute asters by
the patient observers of the Heavens. To-day, they are most frequently
discovered by the photographic method of following the displacement of
the tiny moving points upon an exposed sensitive plate.

JUPITER

And now let us bow respectfully before Jupiter, the giant of the worlds.
This glorious planet is indeed King of the Solar System.

While Mercury measures only 4,750 kilometers (2,946 miles) in diameter,
and Mars 6,728 kilometers (4,172), Jupiter is no less than 140,920
kilometers (87,400 miles) in breadth; that is to say, eleven times
larger than the Earth. He is 442,500 kilometers (274,357 miles) in
circumference.

In volume he is equivalent to 1,279 terrestrial globes; hence he is only
a million times smaller than the Sun. The previously described planets
of our system, Mercury, Venus, the Earth, and Mars combined, would form
only an insignificant mass in comparison with this colossus. A hundred
and twenty-six Earths joined into one group would present a surface
whose extent would still not be quite as vast as the superficies of this
titanic world. This immense globe weighs 310 times more than that which
we inhabit. Its density is onl