divellent

Updated: May 29, 2025

The hypothesis that they, or any of the comets associated with them, were returns of an individual body is peremptorily excluded. They may all, however, have been separated from one original mass by the divellent action of the sun at close quarters.

Agnes M. (Agnes Mary) Clerke - A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century: Fourth Edition

They result, Professor Kirkwood believed, from the divellent action of Jupiter upon embryo pigmy planets, just as comets moving in pursuit of one another are a consequence of the sundering influence of the sun.

Agnes M. (Agnes Mary) Clerke - A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century: Fourth Edition