LAPLACE, Pierre-Simon.

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Exposition du systême du monde. First edition of this seminal work of science communication, including the first publication of Laplace's nebular hypothesis for the formation of the solar system. This model is essentially evolutionary and dependent on the kind of timescale that would only much later become critical in the Darwinian science of the mid-19th century.The Exposition draws on Laplace's seminal work in the 1770s and 1780s, during which he confidently tackled questions side-stepped by Newton himself: how to explain the specific motion of the solar system according to Newtonian mechanics? Telescope observations appeared to show Jupiter's orbit shrinking and Saturn's expanding, which led to considerable speculation that the solar system might eventually tear itself apart. Newton himself had ventured nothing on the issue beyond the conclusion that a little divine intervention must be needed to preserve the system in equilibrium.Laplace (1749-1827) was able to develop the mathematics needed for a full Newtonian model of the observed solar system, hypothesising its origins from the condensation of a vast cloud of incandescent gas - a nebula. Kant had earlier proposed a similar model, but Laplace devised his theory specifically in the context of his observations of the solar system.

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