Smyrna times., 1884-12-10
The Planets.
THE ORIGIN, GROWTH AND DEATH DEs-
CRIBED BY PROFESSOR PROCTOR.

Prof. Richard A. Proctor lectured
last Thursday night in the Town Hall
on " The Planets" He compared the
dltterant bodies in the solar system to
the trees in a fOrest-some, like the
sapling, young, others ofmature growth:
others again old, and others still with
cred and dead. These things followed
just as in any other evolution. This
earth is in its middle life, doing what
she was intended to do. The stages of
a planets life were given from the time
when it was formed by the gathering to-
gether of fragments until its death.
The first stage is that of intense heat.
and the greater part of the planet would
be mass of vapor, the orb heing
lustrous and glowing, giving out intense
heat. Later it would lose heat, and
the greater part would become liuuid.
afterwards becoming solid. The earth
while III its first stage had probably
diameter OF 10000 or 10000 miles in
stead OF 5000, as at present. In the
earlier stages the volcanic and other
disturbances We're much greater than
now. The globe gradually became cool
enough for life, and life would begin.
There IS evidence that the earth is tens
OF millions of years old, but it is diff
cult to say what is the age of planet
when life on it begins. Sir Isaac New
ton believed thatthe waters of the ocean
were being gradually absorbed by the
earth. The waters of the sea are being
diminished in this way, but in what
degree cannot be said. They are alb
sorbed to the thickness of a sheet of pa
per IN one year, to the thickness of an
inch in one hundred years, in ten mil
hons OF years, IA mere second in time
10000 feet. In time all the water
would be gone, and in long period the
air itself would become so thin that il
would not support life. Planets. like
other bodies, cool slower as they are of
greater bulk. If the earth cooled in
ten million years, then it would take
Jupiter seventy million years to cool.
Thus the large planets are yet in their
youth or first stage, while the small
planets are in their advanced age.
Thus the moon shows old age, while
Jupiter is yet baby. The larger ones
have the characteristics of youth and
the small ones of old age.
Illustrations of these things were
thrown on the screen. The sun shows
better than any of the others the
vaporous or first stage, and no one
believes it to be the abode of life.
Being the largest, the sun is the young
est of all the solar system as regards ad-
vancement in life. The tornadoes of
the sun moves at the rate of 100 miles
per second. All the tumults of earth
combined would not equal the noises on
one mile Of the suns surface. The
great disturbances of Jupiter were com
pared with those of the sun. Jupiter
is still glowing, and too hot for life.
Saturn was also said not to be the
abode of life.
The condition of planets less than
the earth was considered. Mars shows
division of surfaces into land and water.
Masses Of snow are seen, which grow
larger in winter and smallerin summer.
This has been the case for two hundred
years-the time which has elapsed since
their discovery. Oceanic and air cur
rents are also observed. The reduction
Of the seas indicates age.
The moon is 50 old as to be in plane
tary death, though evidences of her
fiery youth are yet to be seen in the
mouths of her extinct craters. She is
not too cold or too hot to support life,
but the seas are all absorbed, and there
Is no air, or it is so thin that no creature
could livein it. There isno water, and
themoOnis dead. Pictures of the moon
were thrown on the screen, showing
death and desolation. Myriads of ex-
tinct volcanoes were shown, the largest
one having a crater 60 miles wide.