The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-10-27
NEW THINGsINTH MOON
Photography Reveals Unknown
Objects on the Planet.
Interesting Discoveries Made by Astron-
omers Through tho Uso OF the
Telescopc-Lunnr Orators
and ChpsmS ~.

than its discoveries upon the moon, saws
the New York Sun. The moon is SO
near by and has been SO carefully
studied with the most powerful tele-
scopes for hundreds of years that the
astronomers had come to think that
they knew pretty much all about it, or
at least about that face of the moon
which is turned toward the earth. But
it turns out that photography possesses
the power to reveal things upon the
moon which cannot be seen by the eve
even with the aid Of the best of tele-
scopes. A careful study of the mega
tives OF the moon made with the aid of
the great Lick telescope has revealed
the existence of many unknown objects
there, including great crater mountains
and riffs or chasms in the surface of the
moon, as we'll as some of those mystic
rious objects which go under the de-
scriptive name of bright streaks or rays.
Near the great crater which we call
Copernicus another crater of nearly
equal dimensions is shown upon the
negatives, although it is absent from
the most elaborate maps of tho moon,
and cannot be seen even with the Lick
telescope, except when the magic eye
of the camera, instead Ct tho human
retina, is applied to look for it. When
it is considered that this mysterious
crater represents the remains of. n
mountain ring more than fifty miles in
diameter it appears exceedingly strange
that it should escape detection by the
telescope when directed to the moon,
and yet be visible upon photograph of
the moon. Tho reason appears to be
that the walls of this newly discovered
crater were long ago destroyed, being
RACED by some denuding force nearly to
the level of the surrounding surface 1t
is, consequently, but the remnant Of
great crater ring. Even in that condi-
ton, however, it would be visible to the
eye but for the fact that its huge neigh
Dor, Copernicus, whose walls arc still
standing to great height, is surrounded
by enormous masses of luminous ma
terial, which looks like lava, that must
have Overhowed the surrounding coun-
try ages ago, and reflects back the light
of the sun to our eyes with overpowcring
brilliancy. The glare of this broad re-
f1ecting surface, covering hundreds of
square miles, is so great as to conceal
the comparatively low relief of the
broken crater ring.
In fact, it is not improbable that
Copernicus Is responsible for the disap-
pearance of the other great crater,
which doubtless was the predecessor of
Copernicus, and once lowered up to an
equal height above the surrounding
plains. After it had ceased to be an
active volcano, and Copernicus had
burst forth, the latter probably over
whclmed it with torrents Of lava, which,
filling up the space within its broken
walls nearly to the level of their tops,
submerged it, SO to speak, beneath the
new surface thus formed, so that only
the summit of it's broken walls remains
to be caught by the acute vision of the
Photographic plate.
In other parts of the moon similar
events appear to have taken place, and
there are number of large craters,
enormously greater than any volcanic
cratcrs upon the earth, which seem to
have been buried by the outburst of
lava from subsequently-formed vol
canoes in their neighborhood, so that
only portions of their mountain walls
now remain visible.
Another discovery, also arising from
inspection of the negatives made with
the Lick telescope, relates to the won
dcrful system OF bright rays surround
ing the most perfect crater in the moon,
Tycho. This extinct volcano is some
fifty-four miles in diameter, and is sur
rounded on the outer side of its lofty
walls by comparatively level region,
some twenty-five miles broad, of lnuch
darker hue than that of the crater it
self, or of the surrounding country be-
yond. The hundreds of great streaks
which radinte from Tycho like the
spoltes of wheel, varying in width
from ten to twenty or thirty miles, and
in length from few miles to nearly
two thousand miles, having al
ways appeared, when viewed with a
telescope alone, to take their rise from
the outer edge of the dark rim sur
rounding the crater, but the Lick mega
tivcs show that some of the strcal<s ut
least pass through this dark rim and
extend clear up to the very walls of the
crater. The suggestion that these mys-
terious strcaks had their origin in the
volcanic energy CT Tycho when it was
still nm active crater is strengthened by
this evidence that the streaks actually
reach to the crater itself.
These discoveries arc likely to give
renewed interest to the study of the
moons surface, and while it is perhaps
to much to expect that great deal of
light will be thrown by astronomical
photography upon the question whether
evidences of the present or former ex-
istence of life upon the moon can be de-
tccted from the earth, yet there can be
no question that n new method of ut
lacking the many problems that still re-