"It confirms the nebular hypothesis!"
"How so?" Smith wanted to know.
"Because it proves that the process of condensation and concentration,
which produces planets out of the original gases, can take place at
uneven speeds! Instead of concentrating to the globular form, Sanus
cooled too quickly; she concentrated while she was still a ring!"
Smith was struck with another phase of the matter. "Must have a queer
sort of gravitation," he pointed out. "Seems to be the same, inside the
ring or outside. Surely, doc it can't be as powerful as it is here on
the earth?"
"No; not likely."
"Then, why hasn't it made a difference in the inhabitants? Seems to me
the humans would have different structure."
"Not necessarily. Look at it the other way around; consider what an
enormous variety of animal forms we have here, all developed under the
same conditions. The humming-bird and the python, for instance.
Gravitation needn't have anything to do with it."
Billie was thinking mainly of the question of day and night. "The ring
must be inclined at an angle with the sun's rays," she observed. "That
being the case, Sanus has two periods each year when there is continuous
darkness on the inner face; might last a week or two.
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