The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1900-12-29
NOT A COLD PLANET,
THE MOON IS, IN FACT, EXACTLY
THE CONTRARY.
Scientists Claim Its Climate Is Too
Sultry for Human Beings to Inhabit
Our Satellite Is Also Subject to
Great Extremes of Cold.

-
Astronomers and scientists now tell
us that the old popular idea of the
moon being a frigid body is a mistake.
on the contrary, they declare that the
earth's satellite is an intensely hot
body; so hot, in fact, that life as 1t is
known on the earth could not exist
there. The moon Is so hot says m
official of the United States naval om-
seryatory, that no creature known to
us could endure contact with her sur
face and live. Nor is this fact difficult
to realize when We have reflected a lit
tie while. For instance, we know Ia
the surface of the moon is exposed dur
Ing the long lunar day, a fortnight of
our terrestrial time, to the rays of a
sun fully as hot as that which gives us
our daily heat. With no atmosphere to
temper the action of these rays-not by
Impeding their passage, but by bear
ing aloft the cloud-veil which the sun
raises from our oceans to form a pro-
tecting canopy for us-the surface of
the moon must necessarily become in
~tensely hot even before the middle of
the lunar day.
Ii ls true that the absence of an at
mosphere must cause the moons neat
10 be rapidly radiated away into space.
1t is our atmosphere which retains our
heat and acts in regulating our tenn
pefature. Thus at the SUBMITS of lofty
mountains, where the atmosphere Is
rare. Notwithstanding the intense heat
OF midday, SO rapidly does this heat
pass away that snow forever crowns
The mountain heights. Yet, although
the moon'G heat must pass away ever
more rapidly, this does not prevent the
heating OF the actual surface of that
SATELLITE any more than the rarity of
The air prevents the Alpine traveller
from feeling the action of the suns di-
rect heat wen when the air In shadow
is icy cold.
) John Herschel long since point
ed out that the moons surface must be
heated at lunar midday-or, rather, at
the time of lunar mid-heat, correspond
Ing to about . o'clock in our after
noon-t a degree probably SURPRISING
the heat Of boiling water.
Not alone does the moon Itself pos
sess this extreme heat, but it reflects n
certain amount thereof on the earth.
And this Is not all; the moon gives out
heat by which it has itself been warm
ed. Nor must these two effects of re-
Elected and radiated heat be c%onfound-
ed. The distinction between them may
ie illustrated in the following man
ner: If on Il bright summer day we
take a piece of smooth, but not too
welEpolished metal, and by means of 1t
reflected the suns light upon the face,
Il sensation of heat will be experienced
which Is reflected sun heat; but if we
wait, while still holding the metal as
described, until 1t has become quite
under the solar rays, we feel a
sensation of heat from the mere prox-
unity of the plate to the face, even
when II Is held so as not to reflect sun
There can be produced by this
eXperiment-frSt, reflected heat alone
before the metal has grown hot; next,
the heat which the metal gives out IT.
self when warmed by the suns rays;
and lastly, the two kinds of heat to-
Setiler. when the metal Is caused to
reflect sun heat and also being held
near the face) to give out a perceptible
quantity of its own warmth. 1t Is the
last stage of the experiment which
produces the same effect as the reflect.
ed and radiated heat of the moon upon
the earth's surface.
But we must not think that the
noon adds materially to the heat of the
summer weather. The actual increase
Of temperature derived from the sill
very orb can be easily realized when
consider that If the moon were ex-
AS hot as boiling water we
should receive from 1t just as much
heat as would be derived from a small
globe as hot as boiling water, so
placed as to preserve the same ratio of
size and distance as the moon does to
the earth"