The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-04
PUTS. 1T IN A NUT SHELL.
PLANTATION AND LOWELL Me-
elect THE QUESTION OF Low
TEMPERATURE,
A World ON Which People May Have
TO Undertake Irrigation Oh a
Large Scale.

seems to be an extreme popular interest
"other worlds and of late it has been
greatly intensified by the rather sensa-
| tional speculations and deliverances of
Flammarion, Lowell and others-specu-
lations based upon new discoveries re-
ported within the last ten or fifteen
years, some of which are doubtless real
while others are still more or less cues
tionable
l may as we'll say at the outset that
| in my judgment we have not yet any
satisfactory basis for a confident opin-
ion. The available data are insufficient
and, what is worse, they in some cases
seem to indicate opposite conclusions.
As to the general question whether
the stars and planets are the abodes
of life, we can, of course, say positively
on the one hand that they may be-
Plainly the omnipotent Deity can if he
sees fit organize forms of life that -four
ish in the solar fire, or in nebular fog
On the other hand, there is not the
slightest valid evidence that such crea-
| lures exist. Considering the vast emp
illnesses" between the stars, and the
lifeless ages of the earths early his
tory, as revealed by geology, one cam
not argue that material globes must
be inhabited Unoccupied space, lifeless
millennium and worlds uninhabited all
fall into the same category of unex-
planned use.
But, If we narrow the question. and
inquire as to the possibility of forms
OF life such as we are acquainted with
upon the earth, the case is different
We are able to say at once, and with
absolute confidence, that there are only
two among all the heavenly bodies OBJ
servable with our present telescopes
| upon which anything like terrestrial
life could possibly exist. The two are
Venus and Mars; upon all the rest the
conditions are clearly too different
from our own.
But the limitation must not be lost
sight of-there may be, and very. likely
there are, circulating around some of
the distant suns planets not very un-
like the earth and well enough suited
for even human life. But if such plan
cts exist we cannot see them with any
telescope yet constructed or ever likely
to be-. To make them visible would
feet in diameter.
Speculation may be allowable in the
premises, but dogmatism certainly is
not.
AS to the planet Venus, we need say
very little here. In diameter, mass
density and the force of gravity upon
her surface she is the earth's twin sis
ter. She is so much nearer than we
are to the sun that she receives from
him almost twice as much heat and
light as we do, but as to the character
of her surface we know almost moth
ing. Unquestionable observations prove
that she has a denser atmosphere than
ours, and it is probably always filled
with cloud:
At any rate, no distinct and well
marked features have ever been de-
tected on her surface, and there is no
| reason to suppose that the cloud veil
has ever lifted.
With Mars the case is different; we
know more about him than we do
about any other heavenly body, the
moon excepted.
We may reckon up our stock of GER
tain knowledge about this planet some
what as follows:
| In the first place, its orbit is about
| once and a half as large as the earth'S
and it makes it's circuit in 687 days, at
a distance from the sun which ranges
between one hundred and twenty-eight
and one. hundred and fifty-five million
miles, the mean being 141 500, 0O0 Once
in every 730 days the earth overtakes
| it, passing between it and the sun,
and if this happens in the latter part
of August the distance between US will
be the least possible-only about thirty
five million miles.
| No other heavenly body except the
moon and Venus, and now and then a
| comet, ever comes so near.
Still, this is not so very near after
all. Thirty-five million miles is 147
times the distance of the moon, so that
even with a magnifying power of a
! thousand (and only the largest tele-
scopes, under the most favorable con-
ditions), we see the planets surface
| just as we view the moon through a
! common field glass magnifying seven
times. And most of our observations
are made, of course, at a distance much
greater than this minimum.
! Moreover, since the planets distance
| from the sun averages something more
than once and a half that of the earth,
! it is certain that Mars receives less
| than half as much solar heat and light
as we dO-an unquestionable and most
| important fact.
In the next place, we know that the
diameter of Mars is about forty-two
| hundred miles somewhat more than
half that of the earth), and that it ro-
/ tates in 24h 37m. 2265s. around an
| axis so situated that the planets equa-
! tor is inclined about twenty-four de-
| grees to the plane of its orbit. This
! is so nearly the same as the inclination
of the earths equator that we safely
| infer that Mars must have seasons
very like those of the earth though
notably modified by the considerable
variations in its distance from the sun
at different parts of it's orbit.
In the third place, from the motions
| OF its two little moons, we can calcu-
late with certainty the weight or
mass" of the planet, and we find it
| to be less than one-ninth (3-2S) that
| of the earth. From this it follows also
that the planets average density is
seventy-two per cent that of the earth,
and the force of gravity upon it's sur
face is not quite thirty-eight per cent
as great as here.
A man who here weighs 100 pounds
would there weigh only 60 pounds. If
he were able here to jump to a height
Of five feet, there he could iumn thir-
teen. So far as this condition goes a
Marian elephant might be as agile as
a terrestrial deer.
ii.as far there is no guesswork. We
t8ted knowledge, not speculation.
more. There are clear indica-
an atmosphere upon the planet,
~ 4 they are not such as to enable
US % calculate with certainty it's extent
and destiny. This atmosphere ought
to be much less extensive and dense
| than ours on account of the lessened
| force of gravity, and if the so-called
! "dyDam1cal theory" of gases. now al