Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1885-01-22
A PLANETARY ROMANCE.

A PLANETARY ROMANCE.
A large audience, just as many people as
could crowd into Willard Hall, Washington
assembled Monday night TO hear Prof r. A
Proctor the English astronomer, relate the
"History of the World"
No man can tell, said the lecturer, the first
stages of our solar system. Our own planet
was once intensely hot, and its lifetime is u
period Of cooling decay and death coming
at last. AS in !. forest of trees there are
saplings and vigorous trees and dead stumps:
so in the planetary system there are young
worlds, middle aged worlds, old worlds, and
dead worlds. Where there is intense heat
there must be intense lnstre and great dis
turbance. The changes coming with the
cooling of of the mas, were described, the
appearance rom another sphere, of q plan
ct in the various Stages being traced
The earth tells VI what the habitable
stage is like, the astronomer having togo To
the Sec!ogist TO knew what he Is really do
ing How long viii na lorces at work take
to complete the cycle?
II FAUST have been millions OF years since
The earth was the .ib"de OF light. One
change, which n WLuu drew attention
to, is in the re!atiE, positions OF water
aud lard. Formerly lac water was all
suspended over the earth. Now II is
mostly on the sur!t.vs. soaking aud being
drawn into the interior. But how slow
was tie process? The SEA is sink
ing the thickness cf Il sheet or pa
per in IL year, an lHcn Ia hundred
wears, and so On until the final change,
when the water will all have disappeared
and the surface will lock like that .! the
hruo Iu hy ,hnr
time become too thin 10 breathe, the oxy
gen Eeing Withdrawn, aud life as we know
it will cease.
The great lens. three feet il diameter, lor
the Lick telescope ;o3k two mouths to cooi
when recently cast The larger the body
of coarse the longer will it take 70 r:.diate
he heat The world is . very large body
# oa;ier, and tue auoIi,J o: cooling in ::
r"o;ury would he impcrcentible, except
possibly, to scientific tests
The sun formed al exception 20 the lee
iurer'5 theory that al! planetary bodies
either have been, are. OF will be habtable.
'rho source of our life aud light and neat,
though now in the glowing, yaporous stage,
common TO the youth of all planets, prob
ably will never be Inhabited.
stereoptican was then called into re-
quisition and the planets pictured upon
screen that founded the back ground ct tie
stage platform. 4 photograph Of The sun
printed by his own light was thrown on
this, forming disk over twenty feet in
diameter. The edge was seen to be OBJ
scured by the metallic vapors which are
rising from the seethiug substance Of the
sphere, falling back in the form of a
| radiant rain OF drops Of incandescent
| iron, copper, zine, and other elements dis.
| covered by the spectroscope. Pictures
| of storms on the surface moving at the
| rate Of 100 miles in 81 .secoad, cf tie brilliant
appearance Of the surrounding solar atmos
! phcre revealed during an eclipse, and other
wonderful results of that marvellous coQhi-
| nation Of the telescope and camera were
! thrown on the screen and described in COM
mon place terms.
jupiter was next shown as sample Of q
planet in the second stage. The theory was
advanced and supported that be i3 now
| nourshing life in his four moons which
might indeed be habitable worlds. Saturn
with his rings aud eight possible satellite
worlds was the next example ofthe planets
still il the second or younger stage through
their greater bulk. Mercury was also
declared to be possibly in the same condi'
| ton.
Venus with her atmosphere as discovered
during her ,rausit across the sun, or rathr'
| between him and the earth, was declared
be in every way probably the sister paa6
to ours Mars, with its two little moons,
discovered in Washington, probably not
over twenty miles in diameter, was cited as
decayiug or dead world. The moon was
pictured as it probably has never been be-
fore the black shadows cast by its noun
tains from its kyless sunlight, and the dark
beds of its dried up oceans being as signifi
cant as though the obituary Of the dead ORR
was leeihIe on the summit of one of its
monumental cratcrs.