Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1894-03-08
OUR NEIGHBOR VENUS
THE TWIN OF THE EARTH, WHICH is
100000 MILES AWAY.

Where There Is Perpetual Day and Per-
petual Night-speculation as to the Plan
cts Inhabitants-Another of Our Neigh |
bors Is Jupiter.
Venus is the twin of the earth, her di- /
pmeter being about Z 700 miles, or only
tome 200 miles less than that of our globe
Jupiter is the Goliath of planets, being So
500 miles in diameter, or about I 300
times as great as the earth in volume
Jupiter makes less brilliant appearance
than Venus, because it is ten times as far
away.
When a telescope is directed ut the two
planets, the difference between them he
comes much more striking. Venus looks
then like crescent moon, dazzlingly
bright, with faint shades that can only be
detected by n practiced eye and a good
glass. Jupiter, on the other hand is mag
nfied into huge globe perceptibly fiat
tened Mt the poles, streaked with irregular
belts of various colors on each side of its
equator and accompanied by its four
moons, the shadows of one or moro of
which, as black as drops of ink, may occa-
sionally be seen slowly crossing its vast
cloudy surface.
Since Venus is much nearer to the earth,
its distance being 40, 900, 900 miles, while
that of Jupiter ia 400, 900, 600, it would be
natural to expect that the surface of Venus
should appear more clearly defined in tele-
scopes than that Of Jupiter does. As n
matter of fact, however we can see very
little of the surface of Venus. The fca-
lures of the planet are hidden in its own
brightness. Apparently its atmosphere is
filled with clouds, or else that atmosphere
al oh cf Ia 1irrbt hot
it becomes an oifectual veil, concealing the
face of the planet beneath 'rhe best time
to look at Venus with telescope is IN
broad daylight.
When best seen with n powerful tele
scope, the surface of Venus appears shaded
| with lighter and darker regions recalling
! the lands and seas of Mars But these APP
| pearanCes are so faint and i'll defined that
! great uncertainty exists in regard to them.
| Yet as long ago as 1927 Bianchini made
! globe of Venus, based on his telescope
| observations, and gave to certain dark
spots on the planet such names as the Sea
of Columbus the sea of Calico and
the Sea of Marco Polo"
Most of the earlier observers of Venus
thought that the planet rotated on its axis
| Cnce in about "a hours, so that its days
were of similar length to terrestrial days.
II. 1
discoverer of :he canals of Mars made tbe
surprising announcement that VEINS nrob-
. ablv turns only onca on its oxis IN ravo1v-
inq once aronnd tbe sun. THE wear Of
Venus. or the time required for it to com
! rlete n revolution around 4hesun. is about
225 of our days. If SChiaparclli is right
4ben ono side of Venus enjoys nernetual
day while the other side is buried in end
leas nirht Between the LIGHT and the dark
bemisnheres there is n arrow region.
broade.t at +ha noua+or over xvbich tbe
sun slowly risesand sets once in the course
Of every 225 DAYS
H. il not scientific 70 snecnla+e concern.
inc tho nossible inhabitants of Venus hut
if IL in+crestinc No those of the s11nlit
side ever nav visits 70 their neirhhors Of
the dark side Can men indeed live and
can nIonts GROW where there il no 1:oht
but that If tho stars9 Vet STARLIGHT * lint
a faint SUNLIGHT sent from millions of dis.
1ant suns and faint only becausa they are
60 tremendously far AWAY. And what ON
the other bend are the conditions of life
under a never setting eun9 10 tho inbob-
itants of that side Of Venus blinded NV
nernet,,sl DAYLIGHT think upiverse
consists only. IF tba world they Iva ON and
the SIM TINT liobts IT, Have their nhiIos.
cnbers learned tbo+ bv ooinu round IN tbq
other side of their world they ran sec 4 skv
ablaze with other SIMS among which
brighter thon VEINS looks 70 rs. shines
, tboir poi,bbor Tho north9 Aratbe inbYo
itonts of the dark benienhere Of VEINS
conc.rned in onv manner wifi tho aurora.
observation-disclosures w}icl, terrestrial astron.
omers have beheld there9
, In short if annears TINT cchianarelli'.
discovery ohout Tenus has 1isclo.rd n ney
world for the imoo;nation IN lisnort in
In France where tbev 10 eyervfbine
r dramnticallv even in science NJ. E1oen,
Antoniodi rccert1v conceiyod the idea n
making a .stour" Of the nlanet Juniter. II,
ocoo,nHIishcd II With +beojd of = telescone
Tr,nense as Tho hill of luniter j. i
: makes a comnIets tt,rn on tia avis in ,
, t,i1e less han 10 hours Nv watching i
,ontinnoi,sIv for IN no,rs tben NJ Sn
toniodi was mile to see cver, mart of II il
, succaeeion
p or course tba .op,e ,asnIt could he oh