Abstract
I.
IN days of old it was supposed that the earth held the central position of the solar system, and that moon, sun, and planets moved round it, each in its own orbit. The moon was supposed to be nearest to us, then came Venus, then Mercury, after that the sun, then Mars, Jupiter, arid Saturn. We now know that of all these the moon is the only one which revolves round the earth, and that all planets go round the sun in the following order:- Mercury, Venus, the earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. These are all the planets which were known to the ancients. Since Mercury and Venus were formerly supposed to be lower than the sun, and all the others higher, the name of inferior planets was given to the former, and superior planets to the others. These terms are still retained by astronomers, though the ideas that gave rise to these terms are long since exploded. Fig.? shows the phenomena exhibited by an inferior planet in the course of its journey round the sun. V is the planet Venus in the different parts of its orbit.? is the earth, which is shown in the figure always in one position, although of course it also describes an orbit round the sun. We are naturally led by a study of the diagram to three points of interest concerning the motions of an inferior planet.
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FORBES, G. The Coming Transit of Venus . Nature 9, 447–449 (1874). https://doi.org/10.1038/009447a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/009447a0