The Potter journal and news item. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1872-1874, 1874-01-21
A Cracked Satellite.

! IN obCiN VI q NJ SlONCNA AiiNA N'i'7ih-
tegrated moon which is made public
through the well-known observatory
at Marseilles, has points which, if
/ fully assured rs 20 their authenticity,
will arouse a good deal of discussion
among astronomers. The story is of
Luigui Cacciatore, a young man with
an idea, and a fortune of $4,000, a
student at the Observatory of Mar
seilles. This young man was so de-
voted to his idea that he heaped his
little fortune upon it, and with a
telescope and other instruments, set
sail alone for the solitudes of south
ern seas. Before embarking, he hand
ed to his old instructor roll Of man.
uscript. upon which was inscribed
the idea which the youth purused.
and his reasons for entertaining it at
the expense Il his time and fortune.
He believed, speaking unscientific-
ally. that the moon was altogether
more cracked than modern astronom-
ers imagined and he went to the
south seas alone; that being there in
that region where passed the shadow
he might see the sunlight peeping
through the cracked moon at the
tine of the next eclipse. lie went
away to the South, even to Pitcain's
Island, erected his rude observatory.
gained an old sailor to assist him and
they two, with eyes front and instru-
ments pointed, awaited the shadow.
1t came. Straight through the rug
ged rocks the ragged sunlight shonc
as one secs Il CLEAN through a crack
in 4 door.
\ cry Of JOY came from beneath
the telescope. The sailor turned
photographer, caught three negatives
Of the penetrating sunbeam. The
youth with his idea possessed now
proof, TO him sufficient, that his be
lief was not vision but q scientific
reality and he writes to his old in
strnctor in France. with all the en-
thusiasm Of q boy who has stonmed
a snow fort, and with all the excIa-
nation points of 2 successful lover.
The young man saw enough during
his lonely vigil on PitcaiIn's Island
TO make him declare ''that our lovely
SATELLITE is not only shell that is
crushed in upon some portions Of its
periphery. and q shell that is now
crumbling to rum with a constant. a
savage and frightful velocity"
Tie old professor at Marseilles,
commenting upon the youths obser-
vations and records which accompan-
led this letter, says he has pushed
his discovery very near to the point
Of demonstration" and then the old
Gentleman takes Il hand in running
things with cracked moon, as fol-
lows:
"If the crumbling be connected
with and dependent upon any such
intense internal volcanic actIOn as
Luigui seems to suspect, the final
disruption would be 50 violent as to
project some portions of the moon
sheer out Of their orbit and down up
on us with consequences Of the most
serious character. Such an impact.
if it were of sufficient force, might in
turn disIodge the earth from its or
bit, send it gazing on spiral into
the sun, or flung on n hyperbole out
into freezing space. Or the resist
less force might, in falling, crush in
the surface Of our own planet, break
through its crust and deluge us with
escaping gasses from our own sub
terranean laboratory
Is not that q beautiful paragraph! !
The reader may think that the moon
is not the only cracked thing i'll eX-
istance, but restrain the thought, for
the above occurs just over the sigma
ture of Yvon De Pontecoulant, of
the observatory of Marseilles.