Southwest-sentinel., 1893-01-31
A visit to the Planet mars.

fourteen years, since the year 1877, |
Mars has not 80 closely approach
ed the inhabitants of the earth,
and it viii not return to the same
position before the year 1909 At
one of our leading observatories,
for instance, not less than sixty
eight drawings were made be-
tween the month of May and the
end OF October. Not only was the
gradual melting Of polar SHOWS
watched from day TO day during
the entire interesting period Of
their disappearance beneath the
action of the sun, but all the geo
graphical con6gurstions we're
drawn-seas, continents, coasts,
gulfs, straits, islands, lakes, mouths
of rivers, canals, etc. 1t weE, It
must be confessed, real pleasure,
l had almost said radiant 10Y,
full OF emotion, to see each night
this celestial globe turn before
our eyes, borne onward by its re
tary movement, and showing us
successfully the lands for which it
) is always midday, or on which
the sun rises and sets; causing
: them to pass before us like a pan
Drama in twenty-four hours also
truly a companion to the earth,
with oceans, seacoasts, immense
plains, all the details of its surface
vizible; and, above all, an atmos-
phere pure and without clouds,
2 for it is almost always clear with
3 our neighbors IN the sky.
There are few doubts in general
among the public of the precision
attained by the science of astrono-
! my in what concerns certain very
: interesting points in the study OF
other worlds. Thus, for instance,
the rotation of Mars on its axis,a di-
urnal movement to which this
!, globe owes, as does our own, the
: succession of the days and nights
The rotation of the earth is accom-
2 plished in 23 hours, sc minutes
!, and 4 seconds. The Martain rota
: tion is made in "a hours, 81 min
utes, % seconds and 65 one-hun
dredths, no more and no less. /
is with the same exactness tina
the year of the inhabitants of Mar
!, has been determined. 1t is 68l
: days, 23 hours, 30 minutes and A.
= seconds long. When we state tina
- on Mars the years and seasons ar
:. nearly twice ss long as ours, n,
- one has the right to suppose tina
there can be in this assertion
grain of fancy. 1t is the sam
thing if we speak of the weigh
= of this planet. In Representing
the weight of the earth by th
~ number 1000, that Of Mars is rep
~ resented by 105; and as our plane
weighs 5,S75 sextillions of kllo
% grams, Mars weighs GIT. It's di
ameter is, by nearly one-hali
shorter than that of the earth;
~ measures 6,753 kilometers. II
surface is estimated at l43, 100000
" of square kilometers, Of which 6
5. are sea and n continents; th
~ habitable surface being about 81
3 times larger than that of Europ'
It is not necessary to Journey
= Mars to know what is the intensit
- of weight on the surface of tn
"a -, planet. A terrestrial kilogram, {
1000 grams, carried thither woul
only weigh 376 grams; a me
weighing seventy Kilograms hel
/, would only weigh twenty six.
I. 10, body which on the earth in falliu
"a drops four meters and ninety Gel
NJ timeters in the first second of /
=" fall, would on Mars only drop OF
~ meter and eighty four centimete
" in the same degree of time.
's would-be suicide, finging himse
~ pu' from height, would have amp
Ul -, time to think during his desceI
- - and probably would seldom 81
ceed in his design.
led These are precise facts whi'
il. indicate to US conditions of exii
,er. ence quite different from our ov
Der The light and heat received frc
the sun are there lesser than hel
Mars being further from the 81
bad than we in the proportion of /
ing to 43. It should be colder the
out than on the earth. Besides weiP
Dle. being lighter ON the surface
mic Mars and this planet being old
sr's than ours, its atmosphere shot
pa. be less denss--a fact which il cs