Page 323 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

322 THIRD BOOK OF
planets comes directly between the earth and sun, it appears like a dark spot on the sun's disk, which ap­ pearance is called a transit. iars revolves round the sun in 686 days and 23 hours, at the mean dis­ tance of 144 millions of miles om that body, and is distinguished by bis red, ery appearance. Vesta, Juno, Ceres, and Pallas are between Mars and Ju­ piter. Ceres and Pallas are remarkable r their large, dense atmosphere : that of Ceres is greater in proportion to the solid mass, than that of any of the other planets. Jupiter appears to be the largest, and, next to Venus, the most beauti l of the planets. His diameter is 89,170 miles, and his revolution is per rmed in 11 years, 314 days, and 10 hours. Saturn is more than 79,000 miles in diameter, and per rms his revolution in about 30 of our years. His rings, when viewed through a telescope, present a very singular appearance. The outer one is 20,000 miles in breadth, and 200,000 in diameter; the inner one is more than 7,000 miles in breadth, and the space between both is nearly 3,000 miles. Uranus is 35,112 miles in diameter, and revolves round the sun in about 83 of our years, his distance from that body being about 1,813 millions of miles. His moons revolve om east to west; all the other planets,, pri­ mary and secondary, move in a contra direction. Neptune is one of the largest of the planets-its di­ ameter being 50,000 miles, and its bulk 250 times that of the earth. Its distance om the sun exceeds 3,000 millions of miles, and it revolves round that orb in a period of 217 years.
4. The secondary planets, or moons, are those which revolve round the primary ones. Of these the earth has one, Jupiter four, Saturn seven, and Uranus eix. A satellite is supposed to attend Neptune, in