Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-11-30
WHAT SCIENCE MAY DO.
Conversation With the Planets
Possible Accomplishment.
Long Time OF, However, IL Ever-Mara
Seems to Ise Our Only Hope-VeDus
10000, 900 Miles Nearer, But

seems to BE Our only Hope-VeDuS
10000 900 Miles Nearer, But
Surround ed With Clouds.
Astronomer G. A. Young in the Wash |
ington "Post" says: So far as the stars
are concerned, conversation with them |
is beyond all hope. These bodies are
suns, i. e., heated and luminous globes
essentially like our own sun, burning
and blazing with fury that precludes
all possibility that intelligent beings in
the least like ourselves could inhabit
them. And the nearest of them is so far
away that if it is accompanied by a re-
tinue of habitable planets, more or less
resembling the earth, a telescope not
| less than twenty-one feet in diameter
would be required to enable us to barely
see the Jupiter of such a system. 1t
would need a magnifying power of about
| 30, 600, 900 to make our earth, seen from
| such distance, look as large as the
moon. Our instrument and methods of
observation must be increased in power
| to an extent which we can hardly hope
| for in many centuries before we can even
see most of the distant worlds on which
alone it is possible that life like ours can
| flourish.
| 1t is, of course, conceivable that each
there is now any reason to expect; but
in any case there remains the extreme
| difficulty due to the fact that we have
| to observe from the surface of the earth,
looking up through many miles Of air
more or less impure, moved by winds
and streaked by currents of varying
density. The effect of this atmospheric
obstacle increases with the dimensions
| of tho ta1aScone and 1D1aSs Soma
can be found to nentralze it it is likely
that even if we could make theore til
| cally perfect instrument ten or fifteen
feet in diameter, we should not be able
to see with it great deal more than we
can with the Lick telescope of only three
feet aperture In fact, that noble in
strument owes large part of its superb
GRITTY above all other existing telescopes
to the unequalled excellence of the at
mospheric conditions prevailing at
Mount Hamilton.
1t is worth noting also that if we were
able to send Ineligible signals to one of
these hypothetical planets of some stel
lar system it would be years after the
making of the signal before it would
reach those for whom it was intended.
Light takes fully four years to traverse
the distance to the nearest even of the
stars, and the remoter ones are hundreds
and thousands of years away. Nor
would anything be gained in this respect
by substituting for luminous signals
those of some other kind-electrical, for
instance the communication would still
be through the same "ether' by which
light is transmitted, and through it all
other known kinds of disturbance travel
with the same speed. We may add that
at present it is a mere gratuitous as
sumption that the stars are accompanied
by planetary systems, and that these
systems are inhabited. But, granting
their existence, there is not the least
reasonable ground to hope that we shall
ever be able to communicate with their
inhabitants.
While, however, the great major ity of
the heavenly bodies are hopelessly be-
r yond our reach, few are nearer. AS
compared with the stars, the planets,
which, like the earth, circle around the
sun, are neighbors, and the moon is a
bedfellow. May we not reasonably hope
to be able to establish some communica-
tion with our fellow-planets, even if the
stars are inaccessible?
q Two of the planets, Mars and Venus,
. are not very unlike the earth in size
and at times come within distance
?, which, compared with the distance OF
! the sun even, is small-Venus within
j. twenty-five millions of miles, and Mars
within thirty six millions. Venus, in
a deed, seems to be wholly cloud clad, and
therefore unreachable by any signals we
n could send, to say nothing of the peculiar
: features of her constitution and aXial
1 rotation, which make it difficult to sup
u pose that she has any inhabitants who
could read them But Mars shows land
n and seas and clouds and storms of rain anC
" snow, and seems to be world where, i
t anywhere among all the orbs the telescope
= reveals, life of a kind Ineligible by Us
might bs supposed to exist. If we have
/. brothers there can we not in some way
d speak to them and get reply?
n We can only say, 'tNot yet-nor for
long time, if ever.' Even &c. 900, 900 o.
# miles, though so Insignificant distance
j. compared with that of the nearest star
n is a space too wide to be bridged by an.
e practicable means we yet possess, even
l. if we knew that on the other side per
y sons like ourselves, and familiar more
over with all our ideas and language
l. and telegraphic codes, were watchin
;s for signals from US with telescopes q
i good as the best of ours.
a. If we assume 8, 600 as the highest avail
n able telescope power-and under favor
q able circumstances this is about the ut
Il most limit for the great telescope of thu
n Lick Observatory-then Mars, wheI
+ nearest to us, viewed with this powe
is upon a perfect telescope and under per
feet atmospheric conditions, would ap
n | pear as if seen by the unaided eye fror
~ distance of about 10000 miles. OF
q jects fifteen or twenty miles acros
40 would be just at the limit of visibilit!
re- It may, perhaps, be thought that b
IS some Photographic process the image {
NJ the planet might be secured and the
as enlarged to almost any extent, and
8. the difficulty surmounted. This woul
va be conceivable, but not practicabl
IN wer it not for the fact that light CO
q, sists OF waves which, though minut
n are by no means infinitely So
is AS a consequence the image of di