Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-05-01
JUPITER.
The Giant Planet Not Yet Cooled Down or
Inhabftable.

JUPITER.
The Giant Planet Not Yet Cooled Down or
Inhabitable.
Jupiter is now the most conspicuous
star in the evening sky, and being in
opposition to the sun. appears in his
best estate for observers upon the
earth. The largest of the company of
planets, he is also the youngest, the
age OF the planets being reckoned not
from the dates of birth but in degrees
of advancement from the nebulous,
gaseous condition. There is a period
of preparation, a period of youth, a
period of maturity, a period of age
and decline. and finally there
the end Of life. The stages of an orb's
life may be described as, in the main,
giant planets, for example, being very
much smaller than the sun, must have
much shorter lives. The sun exceeds
Jupiter1 ,O47 times in mass, and Saturn
is less than a third even of Jupiter. 1t
Is clear that, even granting the sun a
start of millions of years Of orb life as
compared with these giant members of
his family, he would Still be very much
younger than they are in development.
We understand, in fact, how it is that, !
whereas, he is in the sunlike or glow
ing vaporous stage, they no longer
have the sunlike aspect. But on the
other hand they exceed our earth so
enormously both in size and in mass,
that by parity of reasoning she
ought to be very much older than
they are Gin development always, l
mean. not in years.. Jupiter exceeds
her $40 times inmass and 1000 in bulk.
Saturn exceeds her ninetv.seven times
in mass and several hundred times in
bulk, and such differences as these inn
ply not only mere difference in degree,
but in kind. Jupiter and Saturn must
not only be o youthful than the
earth, but in a different stage of orb
life altogether. We may say that they
must be in a stage intermediate between
the sun life and the earth life; they
may be expected to show under careful
study evidences of conditions alien to
those found in the sun, as probably at
least as OF conditions resembling those
existing in the case Of our earth. The
great red spot On Jupiter, OF which
during the last few years we have
heard SO much, is, perhaps, the most
sunlike feature of all. It had a sur
face of about $50, 600, 900 square miles
three-fourths of the entire surface of
our earth. From that surface came a
ruddy light, which gave clear evidence,
under keen spe%ctroscopic cross-exami-
nation by DR.. Henry Draper, Of being
in part inherent. The %singularly regu-
lar shape of the spot-a perfect ellipse
showed that it was due to expansive
action OF vaporons matter encountering
but overcoming the resistance OF the
yaporous atmosphere around the re-
gion occupied by the spot. The only
way, l believe, in which the form, and
color, and persistence of this great spot
can be explained satisfactorily is by q
theory akin to that suggested on sun
spots. 1t would seem that from
deep down below the layers of cloud
which until 1876 had covered
the region occupied afterward by the
spot mighty masses Of compressed
vapor were flung up with intense en-
ergy, making their way through those
layers of cloud and rolling the clouds
away on all sides till an enormous area
was cleared. Through the region thus
cleared of cloud VIC could see the ruddv
light from the glowing surface within.
So long as the forces at work below
drove the clouds away from this region
the spot remained, retaining alike his
color and its %singularly regular form.
This lasted for more than five years,
after which, though the spot did not
disappear, yet it lost it's luster, while
the ir%regularity OF its shape showed
that the vaporous masses flung up from
below were no longer able t o drive
away. as before, the cloud masses
which were e~ndeavoring $50 to speak)
to return to the region from which they
had been driven. The existence of dis
turbances such as this, SO widespread.
so long lasting, and giving evidence of
such intense heat in the planet, must
assuredly suffice to dispose of the be-
lief that Jupiter is a world like our
own, and to prove that, though not ac-
tually a sun, his condition is more
! nearly akin to the suns than to that of
| our own earth. And what is thus
proved of Jupiter is proved also of his
brother giant Saturn, seeing that all
the evidence shows Saturn and Jupiter
to be in nearly the same state of plane
tary life, Saturn, if anything, being the
| younger and more sunlike of the two.
Prot. Proctor, IN N. Y. Tribune.
WEIGHING COINS.