Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1892-04-02
GREATEST OF WORLDS.
A THOUSAND EARTHS IN ONE BIC
PLANET.

PLANET.
Curious Chapter by Famous French
Astronomer on q Planet Now In Ken.
I,234 Times Our sixo-A World for a
Jove.
Camille Flammarion writes thus in the
arena:
OF all the floating islands which COM
pose the celestial archipelago to which
the earth belongs, the planet ccnsecrated
from the remotest age to Jupiter the
mighty, king Of gods and men. is the
vastest, the most important, and the most
majestic. This colossal world Of Jupiter
has diameter of about 50, 900 miles, and
which surpasses that of our earth by
more than II times.
The circumference of Jupiters world
at the equator is about $4,000 mules.
The volume of this giant exceeds that of
the earth by 1884 times.
This immense globe seen at the dis
lance at which we are situated from the
moon would appear to us with diam
eter about 40 times larger than that AZ
our satellite, and the surface Of It's disk
would embrace on the celestial vault an
extent 800 times greater than that of
the full moon.
This giant Of the worlds travels
through space, accompanied by 1etlnue'
of four satellites, at a mean distance OF
400, 900, 900 miles from the sun, and
which is more than five time greater than
that of the earth from the same,
Its orbit is more than 1000, 900, 900
miles in extent, and through this it passes
in 1882 days, or II years, 10 months, AM
II days. Such is the year of this immense
globe.
In order to complete its entire orbit
during this period it speeds around thu
sun with a velocity of 1000 miles a
day, or little more than eight miles q
second. This is little less than half tbs
velocity of the earth in its orbit. But 1t
revOves on its axis with a very grca.
swiftness, for its day and night combined
only last about nine hours and As miu-
utes.
In other words the inhabitants of Jupi.
ter enjoy only five hours of real day twi-
light included. IF, :" says Kant. IAN in.
hood, having lived but one year on that
planet, he would be as old as child who
should die on our globe at the age of II
years and 3l4 days.
"The terrestrial child would have
lived about 100, 1868 of Jupiters days and
the child on Jupiter, 400, 1929 of the earth s
days
1t is probable that this globe although
created before the earth, has preserved
its pristine heat much longer by reason
Of its volume and mass. Is this charac-
teristic heat sufficiently intense to pre-
vent all manifestations of life? And is
this globe still at the present time not III
the state of luminous star, but in the
condition of dark and burning one, en-.
tirely liquid, OF scarcely covered with
first hardened crust, as the earth was be-
fore life began to appear on its surface?
Or, indeed, is this colossal planet in
that condition of temperature through
which our own world passed through the
primary period of its geological epochs
when life began to show itself under
strange forms, as animal and vegetable
beings OF astonishing vitality amid the
commissions and tempests of the new
born world? The last is the most ra.
tional conclusion that we can draw from
the most recent and exact observations
10 which we are indebted for what we
know of the present state of this vast
world.
Whether Jupiter ba inhabited now,
whether 1T was yesterday. or whether 1t
will be to morrow Is of little consequence
to the grand, eternal philosophy of nat
ure. Life Is the object of its formation as it
was the object of the earth's formation.
Therein is everything. The moment, the
hour, is of little account.
Doubtless the planet may now be in
habited by beings different from us llv,
ing, perhaps, in an aerial condition IN the
upper regions of its atmosphere, above
the fogs and vapors of the lower strata
feeding on the aerial fluid itself, resting
on the wind like the eagle in the tempest
and every dwelling in the upper heights
of the Jovian heavens.
That would not be dsagreeable abode,
although an anti-terrestrlal one. Indeed,
it would be like the abode OF old Jupiter
Olympus and his court. But if we do
not wish, in our conception of life, to
stray too far from the borders of the
terrestrial cradle, there Is nothing to
prevent us from waiting until the planet
has become cool, like our own. and en-
joy purified atmosphere. which will
permit its being compared with the
earth.