Morning journal and courier., 1890-07-31
The Big Planet.
~.

The giant of our planetary system is now
splendid object of study, in clear nights,
particularly soon after midnight when he
Is on the meridian, and shines like lesser
moon. Jupiter is in opposition with the
sun on the last day Of July, and so he rises,
ton of Venus, the evening star, Jupiter is
now the brightest star in the sky. Owing to
the light of the noon, just now, Jupiter is
less favorable object for examination than
he will be when the nights are darker. His
place on the meridian will be reached earlier
and earlier in the night as the summer
wanes and the autumn skies come on.
''south" or on the meridian. about
hslf-past nine; and good ships.
glass, or even under favorable condition,
good field or opera glass, will reveal his
moons. These four satellites, which were
one of the earliest discoveries made by
Calico with his little telescope, present
beautiful and interesting sight when seen
glowing globes, stretched out in q straight
line, like big gold beads strung on a wire,"
can often be seen, some on one side of the
planet and some on the other, or, as often
happens, one of the four will be on the back
side of the planet, and thus, for the observer,
temporarily collapsed. An observer favored
with such keen and far sight as,
dCCOEuAuk W OhEWlu, tuo ehtdkcS
of Terra del Fuego possess, might see
these moons of another world with the
naked eye. Undoubtedly Jupiter's moons
have been 30 seen a good many times. But
this was mostly by those old time observers.
who, as Darwin says doubtless had 1.-THE more
practiced habits of perception and keener
senses, common to all men in savage state
as compared to those long civilized" The
Fuegians on the "Beagle" could always dis
Germ a distant sail long before even the far
sighted seamen, and when the incredulous
officers tested their assertions with the tele-
scope the savages were always found to be
right. But to most civilized people some
kind of telescope aid is necessary to see
Jupiters moons, though the smallest of
these is larger than our moon, while the
largest is larger than Mercury and nearly
as big as The planet Mars. To see
the great glowing main orb, with its belts
and other markings, and its attendant moons,
is almost like looking on another solar sys-
tenn. The motion of the moons Is 80 rapid,
and the means of comparison, by one an
other, and by the planet, 80 excellent, that
they can be seen to change their places. be-
come eclipsed, emerge from the shadow, and
pass in front OF the planet, in an hours
watching. The third notwithstanding num-
bers by distance from the planets the big
gest one, and that, though not nearly so re-
mote as the outer one is still nearly three
times as far from Jupiter as our moon is
from the earth. But everything connected
with the big planet is on a far lar
ger scale than that of earth and its sys-
tem-if 1t and its one satellite can be
called system. We do not probably see
the planet Jupiter itself. Far less dense as
we'll as 60 much bigger than our world, the
great planet may very likely still retain some
Of its own primal heat and light; and the
great chocolate colored belt-sometimes
changing, in the equatorial region, to half
rosy hue-msy probably be, like the rest of
what we see on that planet, variegated forms
of an enormously thick layer of clouds. eff
| the Jovian system were the only one in exc
istence," says one observer, sit would be a
surprising object of wonder and study. A
monster planet 50, 900 miles in diamater, hung
| on nothing. revolving it's equatorial surface
forty-fve miles a minute, holding four
worlds in steady orbits, some of them at a
speed of seven hundred miles minute, and
the whole system carried through space at
five hundred miles minute"
Is the great planet inhabited
If we may reason from all the analogies,
and perhaps from all inherent probabilities,
in regarding the prodigality and universally
of life, the answer would be in the afirma.
tive. It Is not likely that our obscure little
planet is the only one that is inhabited by
sentient beings. But how interesting 1t
would be to know lust how it all Ia