The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1894-02-19
Our Brilliant Nsighbor Venus, Who
Is Only Forty Million Miles
From Us.
Where There Ia Perpetual Day and
Where Taore l. Also End
less Night
specuiation ~ a. Those whe Inhabit the
Planet Conditions OF life vnder
Never Setting sun-Jupiter


some 2OOmilcs less than that of our globe
Jupito> Is the Goliath II planets. being So,
800 miles Ia diameter, or about 800
| times az great as tho earth in volume
Jupiter makes less brilliant appearance,
than = cnus. because il is ten Times as fai
away.
when a telescope is directed at the tw,
/ planets, the difference between them be
comes much more striking Venus look
then like crescent moon, dazzlingl,
bright, with faint shades that can only ID
detected by % pucdccd eve and goot
glass. Jupiter on the other hand, l. mag
aided into huge globe, perceptibly fat
toned az the poles. stroaked with irregular
/ belts of various colors ON each side Of IL.
I equator and accompanied by its foul
moons, the shadows Of one or more OF
which, rs black as drops of ink. may occa.
sionally b. seen slowly crossing it, vast
cloudy surface.
Since Venus is much nearer % the earth,
!ts distance being 40. goo 0o0 miles. while
that of Jupiter Is 4O0, 600 00o. il would be
natural 70 expect that the surface of Venus
should appear more clearly defined in tele-
scopes than that Of Jupiter does. As "A
matter If fact, however, we can see very
little Of the surface Of Venus. The fea-
lures Of the planet are hidden I'm its own
brightness. Apparently its atmosphere is
filled with clouds, or else that atmosphere
itself reflects So much Of tho sunlight that
10 becomes an cGectual veil. concealing the
face Of the planet beneath. The hest time
90 look at Venus with telescope is in
broad daylight
When best seen with a powerful tele-
scope, the surface of Venus appears shaded
the lands and seas of Mars. But these mp
pearances are SO faint and i'll defined that
great uncertainty exists in regard 20 them.
Yet as long ago as 1927 Bianchini made "A
globe of Venus. based ON his telescope
observations. and gave 10 certain dark
spots on the planet such names as the Sea
of Columbus p the "Sea of Calico" aud
the "Sea Of Marco Polo"
Most of the earlier observers Of Venus
thought that the planet rotated on its axis
once in about "a hours, so that its days
were Of similar length TO terrestrial days.
But in 1890 tho famous Schiaparelh, the
discovcrer Of the canals Of Mars, made the
surprising announcement that Venus prob
ably turns only once on its axis in revolv-
ing once around the sun. The year Of
Venus. OF the time required for it 20 COM
plete a revolution around the sun. is about
225 OF cur days. If Schiaparelli is right,
then one side Of Venus enjoys perpetual
day while the other side is buried in end
less night. Between the light and the dark
hemispheres there is "a narrow region.
broadcast at the equator, over which tho
sun slowly rises and sets once in the course
of every 225 days
Ii is not scientific 20 speculate concern
Ing the possible inhabitants of Venus but
II is interesting DO those Of the sunlit
side ever pay visits 10 their ueighbors Of
the dark slider Can men indeed live and
can plants grow where there is no light
but that Of the star-s Yet starlight Is but
faint sunlight sent from millions Of dis
tant suns and faint only because they are
SO tremendously far ayy% And what. on
the other hand, are the Conditions Of life
under never setting SUM Do the inhab-
itants Of that side of Venus. blinded by
perpetual daylight. think that the universe
consists Only Of the world they live on and
the sun that lights it, Have their philos-
ophers learned that by going round to the
other side of their world they can see a sky
ablaze with other suns. among which.
brighter than Venus looks TO ms. shines
their neighbor the earths Are the inhab-
itants Of the dark hemisphere Of Venus
concerned in any manner with the aurora
ike illuminati0ns which terrestrial astron-
omers have beheld theres
In short, IL appears that Schaparelli's
discovery about Venus has disclosed a new
world for the imagination 70 di4port in.
In France, whore they do everything
dramatically, even in science. a. Eugene
Artoniadi recently conceived the idea of
making "tour' Of the planet Jupiter lie
mo- ID 81 d sH .sat