Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1894-12-14
The Red Planet Mars.
Interesting Facts about Our Nearest
Neighbor In the Heavens.


NeIghbor In the Heavens.
Condensed from an article in the Boston Trans.
script
In size Mars is the smallest of the pri-
mary planets except Mercury, its diameter
being little more than 1000 miles. Its to-
Biography is greatly contTasted to that of the
earth While on the earth there is about
four times as much water as dry land, on
the planet Mars the proportion is about
equal, and one might easily make a com
plete "tour of the world without going
off the dry land, or the journey could be
made by water alone. The red color of
Mars, from which it has received the name
of the "ruddy planet" was believed by
Sir John Herschel to be due to an ochrey
tinge in the general soil, and others have
attributed It to some popularity of the at
mosphere and clouds, or to the color of
the vegetation. 1t is a singular fact that
the ruddy color vanishes almost entirely in
a powerful telescope.
Mars not only has land, water and even
snow, like the earth, but also clouds and
mists, which have been frequently observed,
! and prove the existence of a dense sur
rounding atmosphere. Soon after the in
vention of the telescope the polar regions
of Mars attracted the attention of observ-
ers owing to the singular and varied APP
pearances they presented. A noticeable
and remarkable feature is the presence of
two white patches, one surrounding each
pole, which disappear as summer APP
proaches, and again rtappear during the
winter seasOn-phenomena which prove
conclusively that they are due to immense
masses of snow, which apparently melt
and recede during the summer in each
hemisphere, and increase again on the APP
proach of winter These snow zones"
as they are called are similar to those sur
rounding the poles of our earth, and in OBJ
| serving Mars through a powerful telescope
we are permitted to view phenomena in that
world with which terrestrial jewellers have
long been familiar. The first sight of
Mars through an observatory telescope is
almost terrifying, even for a person of
good nerves. 1t is as if one saw the whole
earth, with its icy poles, as a solid globe,
floating overhead.
The eminent Italian astronomer Schia-
parelli, who has made a number of impor-
tant discoveries respecting the planets, re-
Gently published a startling announcement
regarding the evidence obtained by him,
from a series of careful observations, of
the existence of artificial canals upon
that it is inhabited by a race of intelligent
beings. According to the announcement
of Schiaparelli, the land surface of Mars
is, or appears to be, divided into great ca
mails 80 miles or more in width, connecting
the greenish spots which are believed to be
seas, and extending in perfectly straight
and often parallel dark lines from the sea
coast for a thousand miles or more into
the Interior where they ntersect with 9TH
er canals running directly at right angles.
But what is even more remarkable is that
his observations have shown that in some
cases these so-called canals seem to be
in actual process of construction. This
phenomena has greatly perpleXed all in
vestigators, and the earth has nothing TO
compare with it which can aid Us to a So
luton. Flammarion, the eminent French
astronomer, accounts for it by supposing
that Mars has been in the habit of stealing
the little asteroids among which he re-
wolves and making satellites of them: that
one of these small bodies, drawn nearer
and nearer by the planets attraction, and
revolving faster and faster, as it necessari-
ly would, finally struck its surface at a low
angle and ploughed a furrow across it,
throwing up mountain ridge on each
side.
1t was not until about II years ago that
the discovery was made that Mars is at
tended by two moons. These satellites
are the smallest celestial objects, except
shooting stars known to astronomers at
the present time. Their size, which can
be estimated only by the amount of light
they reflect, has not been satisfactorily de-
termined, but Professor Newcomb esti-
mates the diameter of the outer satellite to
be between five and 10 miles and that of
the inner one at from 10 to 40 miles The
movements of these satellites are extreme
ly rapid, the outer one completing a reyo-
luton around the planet in about 30 hours,
and the inner one in only seven hours and
IS minutes. The inner satellite passes
through all its phases in single night.
1t revolves around Mars about three times
while the planet rotates once upon its axis,
thus presenting the singular and anoma-
lOus appearance of a moon rising in the
west and setting in the east.