Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1873-10-17
Farm and Fzresade.
THE Jy.fR.WTH OF THE .uOO.v.


A writer in the Spectator has collected
the latest news regarding the amount of
heat received from the full moon, and as
serts, as the result of his efforts, that the
surface of our dead satellite gives out heat
probably surprising that of boiling water.
The Earl of Rose has shown by con-
vincing experiments with his great tele-
scope, that the moon not only reflects heat
to the earth, but that she gives out also the
heat with which she has herself been
warmed. During the long lunar day, last
ing for fortnight of terrestrial time, the
moon receives constantly the rays Of a sun
as powerful as that which gives us our dali
ly heat. She has no atmosphere to prevent
the radiation, and no clouds to impede the
passage of the solar rays, but her surface
must become intensely hot before the mid
die of her long day.
Lord Rose has proved that the lunar
heat is appreciable, and has measured ii by
delicate tests, so that we must henceiorth
bid adieu to the poetic imagery about the
"chaste, cold moon," and remember, as
we look upon her full loveliness,
that heat surprising that of boiling water
reigns over her derunct craters and chaotic
surface.
The heat actually obtained from the full
moon can be easily illustrated. The aver
age distance of the moon from the earth is
about one hundred and eleven times her
own diameter. If a globe of thin metal,
on @ inch in diameter, and filled with wa
ter at boiling heat, should be placed at the
distance of one hundred and eleven inches,
or three yards and three inches, from the
observer, it would give out as much heat
as this moon at her actual distance, and at
the ass umed temperature of boiling water.
The perceptibe warmth from globe ofthis
kind, about three yards distant from us in
cold room, gives an idea of the actual
heat received of the moon. Prof. Smyth,
who made observations on the moons heat
during his experiments at Tenerffe, found
the heat emitted equal to that Of the hand
at distance of three feet.
If, during the lunar day, the surface of
the moon is exposed to an inconcevably
intense heat from the sun, during the night
the heat must be rapidly radiated into
space with no atmosphere to check the
process. An intensity of cold must there
fore prevail in this arctic night of fourteen
days, of which our terrestrial perceptions
can form little conception.
The moon presents an interesting prob
lem for investigation. Without air, with
out water, without seasons, with day and
night each equal to fourteen of the earth's,
with temperature alternating from the
fiercest arctic cold to boiling water heat,
and with the earth always invisible to
three-sevenths of her surface, how import
ant to us becomes the question of the causes
which brought her to this condition; and
W neither the same causes will not, in the
revolution of ages, bring the earth to the
same condition, and dead primary and sat
elite still revolve about the sun, as now the
dead satellite revolves about a primary
passing through its cycle of animated ex-
istence.
The astronomer, Adams, asserts that as
the earth's controlling influence has forced
the moon into rotation which keeps al
ways the same face towards her, so the
moons attraction on the oceans is gradual
ly diminishing the earth's rotation that
after millions ,of ages have elapsed, she,
too, will rotate so as to turn always the
same face TO the satellite. But while spec
ula lions of this kind require an almost in
finite future for confirmation, changes may
take place upon the moon perceptible even
TO the present inhabitants of the globe. An
active mechanical process must be in prog
res on that chaotic surface. Marvellous
contractions and expansions will occur as
the alternate waves of heat and cold pass
over it, and time will come when its vol
canic elements will crumble away under
the operation of immutable physical laws.
Astronomers have occasionally caught
glimpses of lunar changes like craters van
ishing, walls sinking, or apparent rosy
clouds fitting over huge crevices. Some
of the telescopes that are being built may
bring to view something more than,''moun-
tains in the MOON" Perhaps the new tele-
scope which will be finished next year. for
the naval observatory at Washington, will
inaugurate its existence with some start
ling lunar discovery. We long to know
more about the sun, moon and stars, and
we hope that American astronomers will
win for themselves an enviable fame in
the astronomy of the future.-Propidenc
journal.