This
bold prediction was brilliantly fulfilled by the finding of two more
-- Juno in 1804, and Vesta in 1807. Olbers would seem to have been led
to the invention of his hypothesis of a planetary explosion by the
faith which astronomers at that time had in Bode's Law. They appear to
have thought that several planets revolving in the gap where the
``law'' called for but one could only be accounted for upon the theory
that the original one had been broken up to form the several.
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. And curiously enough all of the first asteroids found
practically answered to this requirement. Olbers' theory seemed to be
established.
After the first four, no more asteroids were found until 1845, when
one was discovered; then, in 1847, three more were added to the list;
and after that searchers began to pick them up with such rapidity that
by the close of the century hundreds were known, and it had become
almost impossible to keep track of them.
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