Kepler, Newton and Bode

Abstract

MR. J. MILLER'S observation1 that the orbits of the satellites of Saturn are distributed about the primary in a manner similar to that of the planets about the sun, leads one to suspect that Newton's law of gravitation is only a particular case of a more general law. Bode's law can no longer be regarded as fortuitous. Kepler's relation between planetary distances and periods may only apply at the distances given by Bode's law. If this is so, Newton's inverse square law only applies at those same distances—distances for which the actual law of force gives stable orbits.