The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1873-07-03
The Physical Condition of the Planets.

Inc Fnyslcal CONDITION OF the Planets.
While the savants of former centuries
have, with the utmost minateness, deter |
mined all the details of the motions of !
the bodies which Constitute our planetary |
system, and definitely settled the astro- |
nomical aspect of the question, it was re-
served for the astronomers of the present |
day, the latter half of the nineteenth |
century, to determine the particulars of |
their actual condition, and to Settle the
physical aspect of the question.
First of all, astronomy having long ago
proved that our earth contains scarcely
the four hundred thousandth par. of the
matter constituting our planetary system
and that she has common origin with
the rest of the same, the new science of
geology proved that our earth had passed
through gradual cooling process, that
many portions of her surface were to all
lntents and purposes equivalent to
burnt up cinder, while other portions of
the surface had been disintegrated, wash
ed, dissolved, precipitated, etc by the
long prolonged action of water We are,
as it were, driven to the conclusion that
the history of the other members of
our planetary system must be similar to
that OF our earth, that sooner or later
they have gone or will go through the !
same phases of existence and that the
fate in store for our earth may be learned
from the condition of those planetary
bodies which are the furthest advanced
in this slow cooling process -
The celebrated French naturalist Buff
ion was the first to make experiments in
order to determine the period of time re-
quired for highly heated bodies of differ
ent size to cool off by radiation; he had
very large iron balls cast of different sizes,
exposed them freely to the air in order
to cause them to cool down, and noticed
carefully the differencein time required
by the large as compared with the small
ones He thus found the law regulating
the relation between the size of the ball
and the time required for its cooling; and
applying this law directly to a ball of the
size OF our earth, in the supposition that
1t was once white or red hot, he found
the lapse of millions upon millions of
years necessary for her cooling down to
the present Temperature His expert
ments were more recently verified by
Blsohof in Germany, who had balls cast
of furnace slags similar to sbasalt1 some
of these balls were of colossal size He
came to similar conclusions supporting
the evidences of the geologists in regard
to the imnensity of the period of time
required for the past history of our plan
ct. This consideration alone makes the
now almost antiquated idea, that the
plan0bS are al 1uQaDllaDl0 at the present
period of their existence, if not untena-
BILE at least very doubtful. The planets
are ofyery different sizes ;athey therefore
require different periods of time for cool
ing down, as they originated from the
same nebuloQs mass of matter, and had
after its first condensation, by gravitationl
(not by cooling), nearly the same temper
rature, they must now have reached very
different conditions of heat which vary
according to their sizes.
Let US now see what the combination
of the modern sspeetroseope, photolnetere
and telescope reveals to us in this re-
spect, and whether these conclusions are
confirmed by the most serutinous obser-
vations of the present day - Fortunately
one of the smallest bodies of the planetary
system, and therefore one of those which
must have cooled soonest, is the nearest
to us, our moon. Observations point to
the undeniable fact that, in the moon,
all effects of its ownAheat have utterly
ceased, and the whole satellite is cooled
down to- low temperature, scarcely
reached on earth by the, tops~of the Hi
malayas and sAndes5 that alF former vol
canic action, of which she bears strong
evidences, has utterly ended, and that all
water ever possessed by her has long ago
been absorbed by her lavas and rocks as
water of hydration; while no trace of an
eve even 20 nos kno@ Tne1ner sns eyer haa
The next body of which we have some
definite knowledge is the planet Mars
Although he is at several hundred times
greater distance from us than the moon,
we can observe his atmosphere, clouds,
and changes of seasons in, his two heIni-.
spheres, by the periodical increase and
decrease of the ice belt around his poles.
T., 80 &hnr Tc lxT h<1Jxr
which the conditions are so similar TO
those of our earth at the present time !;
but the planet is much smaller than our
earth, and further from the warming in
fuence of the sun; therefore the proba-
bility is that he is Sarther advanced in
the cooling process, and this is confirmed
by the closest modern observations.
Clouds and water are much more scarce
there than on our EARTH and the fate
awaiting US, of drying upef vegetation
by want of sufficient water, has COM
menced to be realized there on a large
scale, as on our earth it is realized over
limited surfaces, such as the Asiatic and
African deserts.
In order to understand the reason of
this continual diminution of the amount
of water on planet we have only to
consider that after every volcanic erup-
tien, by the hydratione Of the cooled laYas,
u Ger fball 1iNOu11b OF 4lQul0 Hssec4~4S Witu-
drawn from the general provision and
solifed in the rock, and that the liquid
interior of our earth contains enough of
this material to asorb many times all the
water of our oceans; as these extend
down to scarcely the one thousandths
part of the earths diameter, while only
comparatively thin solid crust covers
the hot interior. These two bodies, the
moon and Mars, are thus ahead of the
earth in history, while the other amem-
bers of thesystem are behind. Jupiter
by reason of his immense size, 900 times
that of the earth, is not yet cooled below
the red heat, and IS surrounded by an at
mosphere of superheated steam, as we
mentioned on . former oecasion5 Venus
by its neighborhood to the sun, being
nearly of the same size as our earth, is in
very much the same condition as Jupiter
only cooled downas slittlefurther, and on
the eve of becoming fit for vegetable and
animal life Of Mercury, still nearer to
the sun, we know nothing but the prob
ability is that he is hotter than Venus.
The satellites of Jupiter have been proved
to be darker than the planet itself, emit
ting no light of their own, as the planet
does, and may therefore rejoice in the
existence. of life, if the other complex
conditions Of proper atmosphere, water,
ETC., are favorable; but this is improbable
as the main planets appear to appropriate
the atmosphere Of their satellites In re-
gard to saturn It appears that this plan