The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-09-04

past full and no cloud ohscured the view.
One fact was noticeable which recalls in q
striking way the matter of astronomical
volumes and distances: Nearly one min
ute is required for the planet to pass be-
hind the disc of the moon. as Mars has
disc that can be seen and measured by in
struments. In the OSCILLATIONS of the
distant heavenly bodies, however. the So
called fixed stars of the highest
magnitude, the star disappears in an
instant of time. Large as these bodies
are the most powerful instrument shows
no disc; yet some of them are pretty def
nitely known to be hundreds or thou
sands of millions of times larger than our
earth or Mars. A body the size of the
earth or Mars suddenly thrown into
body like Sirius are Areturus would ex-
perience the fate of flea who lncau-
tiously ventured into blast furnace. The
temperature of those suns is no torrid
summer either, for the spectroscope re-
veals definitely the presence in them of
metals, not molten, but in state of vapor,
iron steam for instance, floating in their
atmospheres as water does in ours.
The stir that the planet Mars is making
in this world just now can be easily ex-
take q compass or q piece of pencil or
chalk and string and strike off two circles
from the same center. Then let him take
o ruler or straight edge and draw
straight line from the center to cut
both circumference at any point. Now the
outer circle may be taken to represent
Mars orbit, the inner that Of the earth.
As Mars revolves more slowly, that is at
L. .x,<a xkn <l,ov fho
earth, it follows that there are times when
it is on the other side Of the sun from the
earth, when it is said to be ''in conjunc-
ton" with the sun; again it must be at
other times on the same side Of the sun as
the earth. When it is directly in line or
directly in the opposite side of the heavens
from the sun, it is 'in opposition" to the
latter, and in the relative position indi-
Gated by the places where the straight line
cuts the two circles as described. 1t needs
no explanation to make one understand
that when it is ''in opposition" to the sun,
it is nearest the earth. This is one reason
why the astronomers are so busy looking
at our ncxt-door starry neighbor.
But this isn't all. Planets don't re-
volve in circles, but in ellipses or ovals, as
they might be called, and the sun is not in
the center even of this oval. The moving
bodies are nearer at one time than another
to their so-called centers. Now if it should
happen, when Mars was in opposition,
that is nearest the earth, that it was also
at its nearest point to the sun (or IN "peri-
helion," as astronomers say) and that the
earth was at the same time ''in aphelion,"
or at its farthest point away from the sun.
these two bodies on that occasion would be
the nearest to each other they could pos
sibly get. This is just about what has hap
pened, and the earth and Mars have been
nearer each other than they have been for
seventeen years past, hence the interest in
the earth's next-door neighbor among SCI
eDtific men.
1t need scarcely be said that nothing re-
sembling proof of the presence of organic
or human life on Mars has been discovered
at this favorable season for observation.
Scientific men, proceeding by analogy and
by observation Of the essential nature Of
matter, are strongly inclined to the opin-
ion that the universe is "made of one
piece" to use a homely expression; that
is, that the same elements and the same
forces are at work in nightly distant
bodies that enter into our sun and its sys-
tenn. 1t also follows almost irresistibly
that If the same forces and matter are at
work that in many cases certainly SIM
liar development has resulted, including,
of course, organic life and possibly think
ing beings. Mars is nearest like the
earth of all the solar system as far
as Is known. Pretty clear evidence
of tho existence of water, snow, ice and
various other things familiar to us here
has been obtained by the telescope, but
that is all. If the Posr-INrELLIaENcER
building were located on our moon it
could be seen with the Lick telescope on
Mount Hamilton, but an object to be visi-
BILE ON Mars, would have to be very many
times larger than the greatest Of the pyra-
mids to be perceived at all. In other
words. if the Mars folks have telescopes AZ
big as the Lick, they cannot see anything
of human production; and if they want us
here to see them they must get up some
thing vastly bigger than the mightiest ef-
fort Of which human beings are now capa-
BILE.