Lancaster enterprise. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1891-1905, 1900-06-20
SOMETHING NEW ABOUT
VENUS.
An Interesting Disco
About NeigebOring World.
From the London Mail.

knowledge of the condition Of an
Interesting neighboring world.
That nelghboring world Is the
beautiful planet Venus, and that
the discovery should have been
made just now will occasion no
surprise to any one who has
watched the brilliant orb which
has for weeks been adorning our
evening sky.
Venus possesses a special and
particular interest from the cir
cumstances that 1T is a globe
which In many respects has a
startling resemblance 10 our OWL
earth. To begin with, the beautl-
ful evening star is almost exact.
ly the same size as the globe on
which we dwell The number of
miles traversed ia making voy-
age around the equator of the
earth would be almost identical
with the number of miles which
wonld make an equatorial girdle
for Venus. Nor does the resem
blance betw cen the earth and
the planet consist merely in their
equal size. The two globes have
practically the some weight.
wo imagine pair of weigh
ing scales 90 mighty that Venus
could be put into one pan and
the earth into the other, no great
difference would be perceived
between the weights Of the two
celestial orbs. Two billiard balls
which had no greater proportion.
al difference in size and weight
than the earth and Venus would
De practically indistimgaishab bic.
The resemblance between these
twin planets has. however, been
carried much further by the in
teresting discovery which has
just been announced to astrono.
mers, and which shall now at
tempt to describe.
To planet which may be the
obode of life, one of the most i'm,
portant conditions will be the
succession of day and night.
Whenever the question as to the
resemblance Of another world to
our earth is raised, it is natural
to consider how far the inhablt
ants of such a world, if inhablt-
ants there be, resemble ourselves
in the enjoyment Of the altera
tions Of day when the sun is in
the skies with a night when the
sun is below the horizon. The
change from day to night, the
change from night to day, are, of
course, consequences of the rota
tion of the planet on it's axis. We
desire to learn how far the period
which the planet requires to
complete each turn may agree or
disagree with the time required
by the earth tor like movement.
To put the matter more definite
ly we may inquire how far the
period by Venus to rotate on it's
axis corresponds with that period
of "a hours, or more accurately,
% hours and Sc minutes, which
expresses the time taken by the
earth to complete one revolution
abOut it's axis. The determination
Of the length of the day and the
length of the night to which the
iuhabitants of Mars must accom-
modate their domestic arrange
meuts has never admitted of
much doubt. Indeed, we know
the length Of the day on Mars to
single second of time. This de
termination has been made so
accurately because the marks on
Mars are clear enough to be pre-
cisely identified. After the lapse
Of years, or after the lapse even
centuries, those marks are still to
be seen, without any doubt what
ever, In each revolution of the
planet. But for the study of the
length of day and the length of
night on Venus the face of the
beautiful evening star offers no
such facility. This globe has no
we'll marked features there are
no definite spots to sully the bril-.
liant mantle of sunmbeams char
acters Of the evening star.
One very eminent astronomer
thought that the day in Venus
must be enormously long; must,
in fact, last for about 15 weeks,
while the night which succeeded
it had to last for Is weeks more.
The discrepancy showed that the
marks on the planets globe were
not sufficiently to solve the prob