This is not at all clear, as the two tidal waves of the
earth are due to the fact that it has a liquid ocean rolling on,
not under, a solid bed.
In any case, we have here a good suggestion of the origin of the
spiral nebula and of its further development. As soon as the
outbursts are over, and the scattered particles have reached the
farthest limit to which they are hurled, the concentrating action
of gravitation will slowly assert itself. If we conceive this
gravitational influence as the pressure of the surrounding ether
we get a wider understanding of the process. Much of the
dispersed matter may have been shot far enough into space to
escape the gravitational pull of the parent mass, and will be
added to the sum of scattered cosmic dust, meteors, and close
shoals of meteors (comets) wandering in space. Much of the rest
will fall back upon the central body But in the great spiral arms
themselves the distribution of the matter will be irregular, and
the denser areas will slowly gather in the surrounding material.
In the end we would thus get secondary spheres circling round a
large primary.
This is the way in which astronomers now generally conceive the
destruction and re-formation of worlds.
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