St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1889-04-13
THE PLANET MARS.

1HE f1AANEI MAk6
Some Recent Discoveries Made BY
Astronomers
Prof. Holden Talks Of Its Mountains. VAL
legs, Rivers. Canals and Seasons
Its Life Manifested ON
Grand Scale.
The surface of Mars when viewed in
the telescope is at once seen to be di-
vided into regions of three classes
whose principal distinction is in color.
The reddish regions have been called
continents. islands. land; the dark.
greenish regions have been called seas,
oceans. CULTS; the whitish regions near
the poles of Mars have been identified
with the polar caps of ice and snow. In
general these latter wax and wane -
they should with the Martial winter
and summer; and in spite OF minor
variations it seems to be fairly proved
that they are in fact what they seem to
be-namely, masses of polar snow or
ice. II snow and ice exist on tho planet
there must be water there and the va
por Of water. The spectroscope yields
independent evidence of the presence
Of watery vapor in the planets atmos-
phere also. Whether the dark green
or the reddish regions are the oceans,
seas and CULTS has never yet been settled
BY observation. The colors seem. by
terrestrial analogies, to designate the
green areas as oceans, the red as land,
but this distinction is one based almost
exclusively on analogy. The encroach-
ment of green areas upon red ones is
now explained as partial submergences
of (red) continents by the neighboring
(green) seas. But the case may be the
exact opposite. and. in fact. it is quite
possible very different affair altogeth-
or. The limbs or edges of the planet
are always of . lemon yellow hue.
which tint usually MASKS the Sharplines
of the markings 1t is by no means
understood how the absorption of the
planets atmosphere operates.
"A comparison Of the earlier and
later drawings has established one fact
beyond question. The spots and mark
ings seen by Hooke and Huyghens. in
1869. are to be seen to-day unchanged
in form. Again. the positions of the
points of Mars. which Maedler accu-
rately fixed more than fifty years ago,
are the same as their positions deter
mined to-day (their ATTITUDES and lon
gitudes) within the small errors insep-
arabic from and to be expected in
this kind Of observation. In general
then We may say that the main features
Of Mars remain unchanged from year
to year. While this is certainly true in
general. Prof Schiaparelli has demon
strated that it is by no means rigorous
ly true. Many parts Of the planets
surface vary in color from time to time;
the boundaries of the dark regions have
varied to and fro over measurable
spaces; certain of the more delicate
features seem to be more easily seen at
one time than at others Though this
may well be due to the varying trans
parency of the earth's atmospheric, and,
finally. the atmosphere Of Mars itself
must and does produce meteorological
variations As Prof Schiaparelli has
said, this planet is no. desert of arid
rocks; it is living. and its life is mani
tested in complex system of appear
ances, some of which are on SO grand
n Scalo that fbo, ~, oyo,, h., dot ,cS,J
from our station on the earth"
During the opposition of 1877 NJ.
not content with laying
out the boundaries OF the various con-
tinents and seas with a precision as yet
gave his attention also to
the delineation of the very finest de- |
tails of the planets markings. lie was
soon rewarded with the striking dis
covery OF whole network of fine dark |
lines, which for want of better name |
he called canals" They usually ran
from one dark sea or bay TO another.
Their courses Were not sinuous like |
those of rivers on the earth. They |
are. however, far too broad (about fifty |
miles) to bear any real analogy to ter
restrial and artificial canals. but we
must repeat that this designation is a |
mere name of convenience. The credit |
of the discovery of these canals is en-
tirely due TO NJ Schiaparelli, who first
studied them with sufficient care and |
made adequate maps of their courses.
Many of them had been laid down,
however. in the drawings OF observers
previous TO 1877; and recent observa-
tons made by large telescopes may be |
said to entirely confirm the map of |
If not in every detail. vet |
in every essential respect. We have !
then to regard the topography of Mars
rs singularly complex considering the |
under which we view itO |
To the continents. the seas, the polar |
caps of Maedler we have to add the |
network of canals. No new |
mystery was added by their discovery
only a greater complexity. We must |
remember that the distribution Of land |
an6 wnier on the surface of Mars is as
vet unknown; that continents"
seas" and canals" are alike in being
rerA names for markings OF various |
cp.nrs