Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1882-10-27

Tic tlaus. of Venus in December next is
naturally directing attention to the brilliant
planet which will then as Il small, round black
spot pass across the suns face Mr.. Richard
A Proctor the English astronomer, has re-
Gently given the public some interesting facts
concerning the condition of Venus. Venus,
he says, has been measured, and we find that
she is Il globe neatly as large as the earth.
Like the EARTH she travels round and round
the sun continually, bat not in the same time
as the earth. The earth goes round the sun
once in twelve months while Venus goes
round once in about seven and a half months
50 that her year, the time in which the sea.
sons run through their changes is four and a
half months less than ours. If Venus has
-four seasons like ours-SpriDg, Summer, An
tumn and Wintcr-caCh OF these seasons lasts
eight weeks Venus also, like our earth,
turns on her axis, and so has night and day
as we have. Her day is not quite so long as
ours. but the diltrcnce-about twenty-five
minutcs-is not very important.
But when we consider some other points,
we see that Venus, beautiful though she
looks, would not bea comfortable home for us.
Venus is much nearer To the sun-lhc great
fire of the solar systcm-than our earth is.
She receives, then, much more heat from
him. In fact, it is easily calculated that if
our earth were set travelling on the path of
Venus. we should receive almost exactly
twice as much heat from the sun rs we do
at present. This would he unbcarablc, cy-
Ccpt, perhaps, in the Polar regions and even
there the Summer, with that tremendous sun
above the horizon all through the twenty
four hours, wonld be scarcely bearablc. Be
sides. what contrast between the hot Polar
Summer and the cold Polar Winter, when
for weeks together the sun would not be seen
at all But Venus, has her axis much more
slancd than the eartl's, SO that her season
must be very marked indeed Thus the
heat of her Summer weather must he even
more terrible than ii her globe were inclined
like the ualth's.
Again, the air of Venus is dcnser than ours
And it seems also TO be moist air, which is
Just the kind of air that keeps the heat in
most. The air of NcrIs is, in fact, SO dense
and moist that the planet would he very UNI
comfortable, quite apart from the intense
heat, for creatures like ourselves. There
can not be moisture in the air Of a planet I'M
less there are seas and oceans on the planets
surface. No doubt, then, Venus has her con-
llncLts and oceans, her islands and pr)non,
tories, an inland seas and lakes, very much
as our earth las. Then there mus, be rivers
Oh the land and currents in the ocean there
must I've clouds and rain wind and storm,
thunder and lightning, and perhaps snow and
hail. Whether the planet is an Inhabited
world or not, il would he difficult to say.
Perhaps II is a world getting ready for use
as home for living creatures. Most physi
ci>ts believe that the sun is gradually parting
with his heat, IT, millions of years hence,
the sun should only give out half as much
heat as he does, Venus would be rs COM
Portable place TO live in as our earth is nov.
But at present it may safely be said that ii
Venus is inhabited it must he by creatures,
very different from those inhabiting the
earth.