Newcomb, Simon, 1835-1909, Holden, Edward Singleton, 1846-1914, joint author · New York, H. Holt · leaf 415
he planets. When Newton investigated themathematical results of the theory of gravitation, he foundthat a body moving under the attraction of the sun mightdescribe either of the three conic sections, the ellipse, par-abola, or hyperbola. Bodies moving in an ellipse, as theplanets, would complete… … Fig. 106.—elliptic and parabolic orbits. to infinity. It was, therefore, very natural to concludethat comets might be bodies which resemble the planets inmoving under the suns attraction, but which, instead ofdescribing an ellipse in regular periods, like the planets,move in parabolic or hyperbolic…
Astronomy
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