The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1880-03-05
How the Earth will Perish.

The planet Venus has an atmosphere,
and it is said to be at the very least as
dense as that of our own earth. Then
we learn also that oceans are on her sur
face, because it has been shown by the
spectrum. It appears also that it closely
resembles our earth in condition, and that
it is the one planet fit to be the abode of
living creatures like those which exist on
our earth. In Mars we begin to recog
nize the effects of planetary old age.
These greenish patches we must regard
as seas, and we find that they are much
smaller in comparison to the rest of the
area than in our earth. On our own
planet ~ 60 is covered with water, and
on this only about 5000. The older
planet has the smallest water surface,
and the idea is suggested that in old age
of planet the water gradually dlmln-
ishes in extent.
We pass to the moon to answer that
| question, and here we certainly find no
| traces of water. Also, we trace no at
mosphere Of appreciable density, and
| everything tends to show that she had
water on her surface, but that it has dis
appeared. Does this seemingly cold and
dead world appear to have passed through
| the same stage as our own earth?
think we cannot doubt this when we look
| there must haye been there such life as
exists on our own planet. There were
oceans on her surface, which formerly
occupied these spots, the waters being
withdrawn, present this finely y-granulated
appearance from it's action. This seems
to be a natural explanation. AS the
planet becomes old the oceans become
soaked into the planets interior, the
crust of the surface as the planet cools
being formed into large cavities such as
exist in porous substances, and into
these the water is withdrawn. DIR.
Franklin of England has shown that four
times as much water as now finds place
on the earth's surface could be found
room for in the interior of the earth,
when the process of cooling has gone
sufficiently far. Then, in regard to the
atmosphere, there is certainly no trace on
the moon, but we have picture here
showing that the volcanic action of the
moon was at one time no less than in our
own earth. The moon probably repre-
sents the future of our own earth at a dis
tance of time of twenty-five millions of
years. When the old age of the earth
will come it will cease as the abode of
life.
Let us pause to consider some of the
stars in this regard. Many of them are
too old and many too young to sustain
life on their surfaces, but that they were
formed for some purpose beyond that of
being useful to this particular planet
there is no doubt. A study of the heavens
seems to tell us that life should occupy
all space and all time, and not be
crowded into one portion of time, or one
portion of space. think we may look
at the heavens, with the thousands of
ckoro 70 h<, cooy, with fha roEod ouo opJ
hold this thought. There you have 5000
suns, each brother of our own sun,
though many belong to higher orders,
and we may believe they have thousands
of orbs circling around them which are
the abodes of life. And if each one has
but single world in its system as the
abode of life, we have then thousands of
inhabited worlds similar, perhaps, to our
own.
In one single solar map here shown
there are 324 900 stars, all to be seen
| with small telescope, and by one of
Herschel's telescopes 100000 stars
would have been brought into view in the
same section of the armament. But, af-
| ter all, there still remains the thought
| that each planet is tending toward death,
| and, though the periods of time are so
| vast that they seem like eternity, the dy
Ing ouo VI IiiC lhIS ScI VI buCoc ouuo up
pear to us like the death of the universe
itself. But take such an orb as Sirius,
which is thousand times larger than the
sun, and all the smaller orbs will have
died; but can We escape the thought
that there will still remain others to take
their places? 1t seems to me we cannot,
if we remember how thoroughly we have
been deceived in the past. We thought
the earth the centre of the universe; then
the solar system was everything; then
that system became but one in galaxy
of stars, and in turn the galaxy of stars is
lost in the infnitude of stars.-Professor
Proctor.