This theory is based mainly on the dynamical
difficulties of the other two, which we will notice presently.
The truth often lies between conflicting theories, or they may
apply to different cases. It is not improbable that this will be
our experience in regard to the nature of the initial nebula. The
gaseous nebulae, and the formation of such nebulae from disrupted
stars, are facts that cannot be ignored. The nebulae with a
continuous spectrum, and therefore--in part, at least--in a
liquid or solid condition, may very well be regarded as a more
advanced stage of condensation of the same; their spiral shape
and conspicuous nuclei are consistent with this. Moreover, a
condensing swarm of meteors would, owing to the heat evolved,
tend to pass into a gaseous condition. On the tether hand, a huge
expanse of gas stretched over billions of miles of space would be
a net for the wandering particles, meteors, and comets that roam
through space. If it be true, as is calculated, that our 24,000
miles of atmosphere capture a hundred million meteors a day, what
would the millions or billions of times larger net of a nebula
catch, even if the gas is so much thinner? In other words, it is
not wise to draw too fine a line between a gaseous nebula and one
consisting of solid particles with gas.
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