The Poles of the Equator

154. Why do the moons around Jupiter move so quickly, while those around Saturn move very slowly or not at all.*

This is because Jupiter, like the Sun and Earth, revolves around its own axis, whereas Saturn, like the Moon and Comets, always turns the same part of itself towards the center of the vortex in which it is contained.

155. Why the poles of the Equator and the Ecliptic are far apart.

The axis around which the Earth revolves in the space of a day is not perpendicular to the plane of the Ecliptic, in which it rotates around the Sun over the course of a year.

Instead, it inclines more than 23 degrees from the perpendicular. Hence arises the difference between summer and winter on Earth.

For the annual motion of the Earth in the Ecliptic is principally determined by the agreement of all the air-aether revolving around the Sun, as is evident from the fact that all the Planets agree with it as closely as possible.

But the direction of its axis, around which the diurnal motion occurs, depends more on the parts of the heavens where the fire-aether flows towards it.

We imagine all the space now occupied by the first heaven was once divided into 14 or more vortices.

• Those stars at their centers are now transformed into Planets.

But the axes of all those Planets were not turned towards the same parts because this would not accord with the laws of nature.

But it is very possible that the fire-aether which converged to form the Earth came from nearly the same parts of the firmament that still face its poles.

While many cortices of spots were gradually generated above this star, the virtual photons of this fire-aether formed many channels in these cortices for themselves.

They adapted themselves to their size and shape to offer no passage, or only a difficult one, to the virtual photons that come from other parts of the firmament.

And so those which formed suitable channels for themselves through the Earth, along its axis, when they now still flow through it perpetually, cause its poles to be directed towards the same parts of the heavens from which they come.*

156. Why they gradually approach each other

The two revolutions of the Earth, namely the annual and the diurnal, would be more conveniently performed if they were around parallel axes, the causes preventing this are gradually changing on both sides.

Hence, the declination of the Ecliptic from the Equator diminishes over time.

157. The final and most general cause of all the inequalities found in the motions of celestial bodies.

The Planets always seek circular motions but never describe perfect circles.

They always deviate somewhat in all ways, both in longitude and latitude.

For since all bodies in the universe are contiguous and act upon each other, the motion of each depends on the motions of all the others, and therefore varies in countless ways.

Nor is there any phenomenon observed in the heavens from afar that I believe has not been sufficiently explained here. It remains for us to proceed to those things which we see up close above the Earth.