The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1892-08-03
IS MARS INHABITED !?
A Question That May Quickly
Be Settled.
ASTRONOMERS ON THE ouI vIvE.

The Planet wiz Tonight BE Nearer
the Earth Than Before in Fifteen
Years--wih the New Lick Telescope
Great Discoveries Are Anticipated.
LICK OBsERvA AroRY, Cal, Aug. 3.-The
cred star of war; now flaming in the
southeastern skies is the chief object of
the astronomers gaze The present great
stir about Mars is easily explained To-
night it will be in opposition. e., the
earth will come directly between the rud-
dy planet and the sun, thus aifording an
unusually favorable and long coveted OPP
portunity for teescopsts to scan its fea-
lures, to watch its two tiny moons, to
detect his ice caps and perhaps to deter
mine whether his so-called canals" really
bear any trace of the workmanship of ami
mated inhabitants.
The path of Mars in his journey around
the sun is not regular curve. So great
is its eccentricity that when near perihe-
lion the planet is about 10, 600 miles nearer
the central Iuminary of our system than
when it approaches aphelion. Tonight
Mars will be near perihelion, and it is
only about 35,00O,00O miles from the
earth--a very short distance for even an
ordinary telescope to span.
But the mammoth Lick telescope, mag
nifying 700 times brings the red planet
to within range of $4,000 miles, or but
little more than one-ffth of the dis
tance of our own silvery moon.
Moreover at this period Mars is at one
side of the earth, while the sun is at the
opposite side-a fact which contributes
very considerably to favorable observa-
tions of the planet. No equally favorable
opportunity for studying Mars will recur
till the year 1909.
Are the people on Mars trying to signal
the earthl
That is the question which the work Of
the Lick telescope during the past few
days has aroused, as Mars has approached
nearer 1t will be remembered that Mars
only became a subject of extreme import
ance 10 years ago, when it last approached
Earth At that time not only were its
two moons discovered by an American,
but wise men in the observatory at Milan
were enabled to show almost conclusive
ly that human life existed on the planet.
The strides which disappointing has
taken during the intervening years have
not only justified the expectations Of its
makers, but has already added some
startling facts to what was already known
about the red orb.
Mars has not only we'll recognized at
mosphere of its own, but four seasons of
the year which follow each other as those
of the earth, a degree of warmth closely
approXimating what is known here, day
of "A little over "a hours, north and south
poles with ice and snow and every natural
condition apparently which should con-
dnce to the existence of animal life.
The work of Schnaparelli, the ancient
Milan astronomer, plays most impor-
tant part in the observations now being
made at the Lick Observatory. After
long and careful observation during the
last opposition of Mars, fifteen years ago,
he was enabled to map its surface in a
way which went far to strengthen the
contention of those scientists who main
tanned that it was inhabited by highly
civilized race
His work was in effect to show that the
surface ofthe planet had been transform
ed i'll manner unknown in any of the
other heavenly bodies There We're con
figurations, as he demonstrated, which,
if they were the work of nature, have been
repeated nowhere else, not even on the
earth, which Mars so closely resembles.
The canals have been adjudged the work
of a superior race Of beings, and this the
ory is augmented by the discovery this
week of three great lights in the south
west of the planet which, it is believed
are signals by which the inhabitants arC
| trying to attract attention.