River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1892-02-04
BIGGEST OF PLANETS.
Compared to Which Our Earth Is
a Mere Speck.
Jupiter's Immensity-Problbly Not Yet
Inhabited by Intelligent Beings
Facts and Coojectures as to
Its Four Satellites.

the most majestic. says Camille Flam-
marion, the French astronomical
writer, in a recent number OF the
Arena This colossal wor Id of Jupiter
has a diameter of about IS, 900 miles,
which surpasses that of our earth by
more than eleven times.
The circumference of Jupiter's world
at the equator is about 275, 900 miles.
The volume of this giant exceeds that
of the earth by 1924 times This i'm
mense globe seen at the distance at
which we are situated from the moon
would appear to us with diameter
about forty times larger than that of
our satellite, and the surface of its disk
would embrace on the celestial vault
an extent 1000 times greater than OF
the full moon. This giant of the
worlds travels through space accom-
panied by a retinue of four satellites
at a mean distance of 400, 900, 900 miles
from the sun, which is five times
greater than that of the earth from the
, same.
Its orbit is more than one billion
miles in extent, and through this it
passes in four thousand three hundred
duA Auli -tNO udNSs tAtNtu Years,
ten months and seventeen days. Such
is the year of this immense globe In
order to orlplete its entire orbit dur
ing this period it speeds around
the sun with a velocity of seven hun
bred thousand miles a day, or lit
tie more than eight miles a second.
This is little less than half the veloc-
ity of the earth in its orbit But it re-
wolves on its axis with very great
swiftness, for its day and night com
bined only last about nine hours and
fifty-five minutes. In other words, the
inhabitants of Jupiter enjoy only five
hours of real day, twilight included.
If" says Kant, IAN inhabitant of
Jupiter should die in childhood, having
lived but one year on that planet, he
would be as old as a child who should
die on our globe at the age of eleven
years and three hundred and fourteen
days. The terrestrial child would have
lived about one hundred and three
thousand nine hundred and sixty-eight
of Jupiter days, and the child on Jupi-
ter four hundred thousand three hun
bred and twenty-nine of the earths
days"
1t is probable that this globe, al
though created before the earth, has
preserved its pristine heat much longer
by reason of its volume and mass. Is
this characteristic heat sufficiently in
tense to prevent all manifestations of
life? And is this globe still at the
present time not in the state of
a luminous star but in the condition
of a dark and burning one, entirely
liquid, or scarcely covered with a first
hardened crust, as the earth was be-
fore life began to appear on its sur
face? Or, indeed, Is this celestial
planet in that condition of temperature
through which our own world passed
through the primary period of its geo
logical epochs, when life began to
show itself under strange forms. as
animal and vegetable beings of aston
ishing vitality, and the commissions and
tempests OF the new born world? The
last is the most rational conclusion
that we can draw from the most recent
and exact observations to which we
are indebted for what we know of the
present state of this vast world.
Whether Jupiter be inhabited now.
whether it was yesterday, or whether
il will be tomorrow is of little conse-
quence to the grand, eternal philosophy
of nature. Life is the object of its
formation, as it was the object of the
earth's formation. Therein is every
thing The moment, the hour, is of lit
tie account Doubtless the planet may
now be inhabited by beings different
from us, living, perhaps, in an aerial
condition in the upper regions of its at
mosphere, above the fogs and vapor of
the lower strata, feeding on the aerial
fluid itself, resting on the wind. like
the eagle in the tempest, and ever
dwelling in the upper heights of the
Jovian heavens.
That would not be a disagree able
abode, although an anti-terrestrial enc.
Indeed, it would De like the abode of
old Jupiter Olympus and his court
But if we do not wish, in our concep-
ton 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 enjoys purified atmos-
phere. which will permit its being COM
pared with the earth. And what would
be better prepared to be the abode of
superior life? 1t is the preponderant
globe of the whole solar family, the
vastest in surface, the most important
as regards mass, the most favored
through the position of its axis, the
most uniform in its course. rich in the
possession of four satellites, and
throned like chief amid the planetary
orbits. What marvellous conditions are
prepared in this abode for the develop
ment of life, intelligence and happi-
ness! All, how much superior will such
a humanity be to oursl
Happy shores of Jupiter! You will
not know the distresses and sorrows at
which the unhappy countries of our
earth are still shuddering. You will
not be moistened with the blood of
martyrs, which has been so many times
shed here in the name of so many con-
Trajectory gods. You will not bear
tumultuous armies of brothers who pc
riodically slaughter each other at the
order of a few infamous potentates!
You will not be defiled by the crimes
that hunger, mbition, or pride is com
hitting every day here below. But you
VIII prepare IN the heavens the united
states of an immense republic, blessed
of the Creator, floating calmly in the
luminous ether. bathed in the tepid
temperature of an eternal spring, with
out winter and without summer, and
slowed growing in the breast of peace
and harmony toward a state of perfec-
ton which our imperfect and miser-
able little planet will never approach
1t is impossible for us to imagine that
the existence of the stars can have any
other object than that of receiving
or giving life Life! Such is the grand
object which we see shining in the des-
TIMES of the creation. The absence OF
life is TO us a synonym for death and
nothingness Our logic refuses to be-
lieve that the millions of suns which
are burning in infinite space are Of no