The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-07-03
MANY MOONS.
at Least Twenty in the Solar System
Some Better Than Ours.
From the Proui9epco To,,r,oJ

SONG Better IMAM ours.
From the Providence Journal.
The moons Of Mars were discovered c
few years ago through the telescope Of the
naval observatory at Washington by Prof
AGaph. He will be actively Interested in
the observations Of that planet and its new
found satellites which will be made In
August next by astronomers all over the
world. Since the discovery of the moons
In 1887, this is the first opportunity afforded
Tor examining them, inaImuch as they are
SO small AS TO be percepHble only al olese
range. Once in every fifteen years Mars
reaches its nearest point TO the earth. Eight
weeks hence it will be within So, 600 900
miles of us, whereas its greatest distance is
14l, 000, 900 miles. Great interest attaches
to the matter, because this sister world is so
much like our own in respect to its climate
and other conditions that it may reasonably
be supposed to be inhabited
There are at least twenty moons In the
solar system. Saturn alone has eight, the
biggest OF them. Titen, being nearly twice
the size OF our moon, and Jupiter possesses
four, ranging in dimensions upward from
Europa, just about as large as the orb of
terrestrial night, to Ganymede, greatest of
all known moons, with diameter of 8, 4S0
miles, whereas the moon belonging to this
world is only 2, 100 miles through.
Though our moon is supposed to be dead
and cold. similar conditions are not assumed
to govern all the satellites of tho sister
planets. Some Of these pertaining to Jupi-
ter are believed to emit light OF their own,
showing that they are still hot. However,
astronomers are usually eager to find evil
dence OF life on other spheres, even dis
| covering on the earth's attendant orb ap-
parent traces OF mighty works Of engineer
ing artitice-the imagined creation of races
being long sxtinct-sueh as the stupendous
bridge that appears TO span crater Of the
moon volcano called Eudoxus.
Eclipses are every ~day affairs on Jupiter.
Three Of its satellites ara eclpsed at every
revolution Of that mighty globe, SO that a
spectator there might witness during the
Jovian year $500 eclipses of moons and
about the same number of the aun by
moons. One Of Saturns moons, called Mi
mas, about half the size of the earths satel-
lite, is SO close TO the planet in its circling
| that it seems TO cross the face OF the latter
at an astonishing rate OF speed. or the
seven others, Titan has diameter of $500
miles, Iapetus | 800 miles, Rhea l, 200 miles,
Dione and Thetys each 500 miles, while En-
celadus aud Hyperion are very little fellows
| Several of them in the sky together WI tn
| the flaming ring of star dust stretched
athwart the heavens, must make a gorgeous
spectacle by night on the Saturnian sphere.
LILO GolosOODO ~ IN VOL lnb6EnbblDK
| TO watch the shadows thrown upon Jupiter
| by that giant planets moons, observation Of
the ecipses Of which furnished the first data
| for estimating the velocity OF light. Uranus
has four little moons-Ariel, Umbrie, III
| tnnia and Oberon-which, funnily enough
| rise in the north and set In the south. A
single dininutive one, belonging to Nep-
tune, traverses the sky from southwest to
northeast. Neither Mercury nor Venus has
any satellites.
But the most interesting Of all moons
are the two that attend Mars, each about
, sixty miles In diameter That planet Is Just
| one-half the size of the earth; its surface is
| divided into continents and seas, having as
| much land as water ID has an atmosphere,
clouds frequently concealing its face, and
its seasons are about the same as here,
| though the winters are colder. Because
one OF its moons travels around Ii three
times as fast as Mars itself turns, Ii appears
| to rise in the west and set in the east, while
the other really circliug in the same diroo-
ton at a speed comparatively slow, rises IN
I the east and sets In the west. Thus both
moons are seen in the heavens at the same
time, going opposite ways.
! One of the most remarkable guesses on
record was made by Dean swift, who, q
century before the moons OF Mars were dis
| covered, made CULVER say Of the
astronomers Of Lsputa: "They have found
two satellites which revolve about Mars
whereof the innermost is distant from the
planet exactly three diameters OF the
| planet; the former revolves in the space of
ten hours, and the latter in twenty-one and
a half hours" In fact, the latter moon is
| 10000 miles from Mars, whereas-the
diameter of the planet being 1000 miles
Gulliver's estimate would place it at II ,0e0
miles For the outer moon he gives &c, 900
miles for the distances, which is really IS 900
miles. The time Of revolution for the inner
moon is actually seven and half hours
and for the outer one thirty hours Prof.
Hall has namei these moons DEMOS and
Phobos, after the attendants Of the god
Mars, who are mentioned in homsr's
"Ilind"