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Updated: July 23, 2025
On the 24th of June, 1825, Olbers saw the comet then visible all but obliterated by the central passage of a star too small to be distinguished with the naked eye, its own light remaining wholly unchanged.
Yet the theory has never been entirely thrown out, and now that the discovery of the light fluctuations of Eros lends support to Olbers's assertion of the irregular shape of some of the asteroids, it is very interesting to recall what so high an authority as Professor Young said on the subject before the discovery of Eros: "It is true, as has often been urged, that this theory in its original form, as presented by Olbers, can not be correct.
With an elaborate care inspired by his youthful ardour, though hardly merited by their loose nature, Bessel deduced from them an orbit for that celebrated body, and presented the work to Olbers, whose reputation in cometary researches gave a special fitness to the proffered homage.
Assuming the same mean density, fourteen thousand such stars might have been formed by the explosion of a body about twice the size of the sun. This recalls the theory of Olbers, which has never been altogether abandoned or disproved, that the Asteroids were formed by the explosion of a planet circulating between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Only of late has the "electrical theory," of which Zöllner regarded Olbers as the founder, assumed a definite and measurable form, capable of being tested by the touchstone of fact, as knowledge makes its slow inroads on the fundamental mystery of the physical universe.
Gravitation demanded that the remnants of a planet blown to pieces, no matter how their orbits might otherwise differ, should all return at stated periods to the point where the explosion had occurred; hence Olbers' prediction that any asteroids that might subsequently be discovered would be found to have a common point of orbital intersection.
This theory, which is due to Olbers, begins with the startling assumption that a planet, perhaps as large as Mars, formerly revolving in an orbit situated between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, was destroyed by an explosion!
The not uncommon phenomena of multiple envelopes, on the other hand, he explained as due to the varying amounts of repulsion exercised by the nucleus itself on the different kinds of matter developed from it. The movements and perturbations of the comet of 1811 were no less profoundly studied by Argelander than its physical constitution by Olbers.
GALILEO. A ring-plain, about 9 miles in diameter, N.E. of Reiner, associated with ridges, some of which extend to the "Jew's Harp" marking referred to under this formation. CARDANUS. A fine regular ring-plain, about 32 miles in diameter, near the limb N. of Olbers.
Both Olbers and Bessel had suggested this explanation of the straight and curved emanations from the comet of 1807; Norton had applied it to the faint light tracks proceeding from that of Donati; Winnecke to the varying deviations of its more brilliant plumage. Brédikhine defined and ratified the conjecture.
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