Abstract
IN the report of the proceedings of the Academy of Sciences at Paris for October 22 (NATURE, vol. xviii. p. 712), with reference to a communication from me relative to the flattening of the planet Mars, it is stated that I confirm M. Amigues' conclusions from independent calculations. Allow me to say that the communication referred to, has clearly established by reference to dates of publication, that the calculations I had been the first to make were confirmed by the subsequent results of M. Amigues. A formula presented by me in February, 1870, in which the mean density, surface density, and velocity of rotation of Mars are expressed in connection with its ellipticity, was reproduced by apparently identical methods by M. Amigues, in the Comptes Rendus for June, 1874. The conclusions drawn from this formula by M. Amigues were, that in order to account for the high amount of ellipticity assigned to Mars by many astronomers its mean density must be less than its surface density. My conclusion was, on the contrary, that the high ellipticity alluded to was improbable and that the values given by Bessel, Oudemanns, Johnson, and other astronomers, whereby Mars would have an ellipticity nearly the same as that of the earth, should be adopted until the subject was cleared up by fresh observations.
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HENNESSY, H. The Figure of the Planet Mars. Nature 19, 31 (1878). https://doi.org/10.1038/019031b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/019031b0
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