Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1876-09-14
ARE THE PLANETS OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
IEHABITED2

Mr.. r. A. Proctor, the distinguished as
tronomer, delivered a lecture at the concert
hall of the Academy of Music last night, to
an audience that heard him with unwearied
interest. lie spoke without notes, and the
greater part of his lecture was commentary
on the Photographic views of the heavenly
bodies thrown OH Il screen. Some of these
were Of singular beauty and clearness.
Mr.. Proctor's ~theory-one which is held
by nearly all the men of standing as astron-
omers-is that the heavenly bodies all pass
through a series of change, from intense
heat to decrepitude and death. The life
supporting era of a planets existence is but
very small part OF its whole duration. It
is, therefore very improbable at any given
time that a planet is in the enjoyment of it's
life supporting period. And by detailed
examinations of the several planets he
showed that none of the primaries ofour solar
system, except the earth, is fitted to be the
abode of life as we know it. The giant
planets, Jupiter and Saturn, are still in
candescent, while hot and feebly selflum-
nous, and many millions of years must pass
OClOlC lIiCy VII DCCOI1C SAiAClCl1Gly SOOl
to suffer life to exist. The other extreme
is shown by our moon, which passed be-
You'd its life-bearing epoch, and is now effete
and sterile. It has ceased to have volcanic
energy. 1t is a lump of death. Venus
present conditions very like our earth. She
still has air and water, but by reason of the
obliquity Of her axis to her plane of revolu-
ton she presents her poles alternately to the
solar heat for half her year. Her inhab-
itants, should she possess any, must be ex-
posed to swift alterations of temperature,
from intense heat far beyond that of our
tropical deserts to Arctic GOODNESS. This
would render life as we know it impossible.
The planet Mars, though vastly older in its
planetary career than the earth, still
retains something of its atmos-
phere and a remnant Of its oceans. 1t is
decrepit, though not quite dead like our
moon. We are rapidly approaching a time
when Mars will be in a situation more
favorable to study than it has been for many
years. In the coming year it will be very
near to us, and will seem as large as Jul
piter. Concerning the other planets, Nep-
tune and Uranus, Mr.. Proctor said nothing.
They are too remote for accurate observa-
ton.
The views which were presented by MIR.
Proctor were not fanclful theories, but were
based upon facts certainly and accurately
known. The perfect modern optical %instru-
ments and the polariscope and spectroscope
yield information about the stars as precise
and sure as can any experiment in the lab
oratory. There is very little gaess-work or
conjecture in the theories he presents. The
obvious reflection that there is an enormous
waste if only one member of our solar sys-|
tenn IS fit for the abode of life, is met by Mr..
Proctor by the reply that this waste is in ac-
cordance with all the analogies of nature
Nature is everywhere prodigal. Ola thou
sand seeds, perhaps he only brings one to
bear. TO the eye of the Creator, a seed is
as dignified as a plant, Perhaps more so
even. The smallest seed that contains the
germ of life might be of greater importance
than the vast deadbulk Of the moon. To
the Supreme being suns, planets, and satel-
lites are all but wandering notes He looks
with an equal eye ons
"Atoms or planets inseonfusion hurled,
And now. a,bubble bursts and now a world -
-lRalaasa3ss Gazetta.