Abstract
THE MASS OF THE ASTEROIDS.—A preliminary note on the probable mass of the asteroids was contributed by Mr. B. M. Roszel to the Johns Hopkins University Circular in May 1894, and summarised in these columns (NATURE, vol. 1. p. 87.) In that paper Mr. Roszel limited himself to determining the mass from a study of 216 minor planets; he has now extended the computations to 311 asteroids, the orbits of which are given in the Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch for 1894 (University Circular, January 1895). His chief object was to find a probable limiting value for the mass, rather than an accurate determination of the mass itself. Using the photometric determinations of the diameter of Vesta, by Pickering and Müller, and the direct measures of the diameters of Ceres, Pallas, and Vesta by Barnard, Mr. Roszel has reduced the volumes of all the asteroids to the volume of Vesta, except when Barnard's measures were the basis, in which case he computed the volumes of Ceres and Pallas separately, and added them to the combined volume of the remaining 309. Assuming the albedo constant and a constant density equal to the density of Mars, he obtained the following numbers:
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Our Astronomical Column. Nature 51, 373 (1895). https://doi.org/10.1038/051373a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/051373a0