The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-16
THE "SNOW ON THE MOON"
AheOry of Prof. Pickering Crfti-
cised-The "ShOwy" Appearance
Explained
From the London Standard.

Explained
From the London Standard.
The theory that there is snow on the
moon has been supported by the high
authority of Prof Pickering of Har-
ward College Observatory. 1t is an
opinion, we may remark, which will
require no little proving. AS, how
ever. the professor has done little
more than mention the principal
ground for his views, criticism is, per-
maps, premature; but we may fairly
inquire whether or no other interpre~
tation is possible. The professor has
been carefully watching certain bril-
liant white areas on the surface of
the moon, and finds that they grow
appreciably smaller after continued
exposure to sunlight, which, OF course,
would happen with beds of snow. But
In that case the moon would have
some kind of an atmosphere which
must be capable of absorbing the va
por or water. All the observations
of astronomers, however, have led
them to conclude that it possesses
nothing worthy of the name The in
tense light which Eliminates its sur
race. the black shadows thrown by its
PEAKS, the hard, sharp outlines of every
feature on it's disk. are incompatible
with a vaporous veil to diffuse the
glare and mitigate the darkness. Be
SIDES this, the moon sometimes comes
between the earth and a star, for a
time hiding the latter from our view,
and this can be observed at the very
moment of disappearance. But il the
moon had an atmosphere in any way
comparable with that of the earth.
the star would disappear, not sudden
ly, but gradually.
ever been seen to traverse the moon 8
surface, and Ii would be passing
strange If these had been wholly pre-
clpltated during the lunar night, and
no morning mists had remained to be
HuShed with the rose of dawn 1t is
open, perhaps, for believers in the
snow to assert that the moon once had
an atmosphere, and that though the
pulk of II has long since disappeared
into space, some faint traces of a gas
eous covering may still linger near it's
| surface. But this would hardly suf-
| nee to produce, during the lunar night.
snow enough to linger through its not
less long day. AS its atmospheric en-
! Velope cannot be comparable with that
| OF the earth the heat by day and the
cold by night would be more intense
than in the most arid region of our
planet; so that no small mass of snow
would be needed to outlast the suns
unshaded and long continued glare.
1here is, however, another explanation
TO be ventured. The moon, 1t must be
remembered, is one mass Of extinct
Yoleanoes-a huge and lifeless globe Of
stag. Some of their craters are on a
much grander scale than any on our
earth. The opposite walls of one are
as far apart as London is from Cam
bridge, and the hight of the crater rim
above its floor is equal to that of Mont
Blanc. When these were in violent
eruption an atmosphere did, of course.
exist; for vapor of some kind would
be necessary for such terrible explo-
stems. But as the attraction of gravity
is so much less on the moons surface
than 1t is here, this atmosphere would
more readily disappear, as it had prac-
tically done before the astronomers
began to take their notes.
But the moons surface, as we have
said Is mass of lava, and as the
average density of the whole satellite
Is only little more than three fifths
or that OF the earth, it is probably
formed of the same matrials. But the
terrestrial lava streams are often
CLASSY In the outer part: indeed some
IKE obsidian, retain this condition to
considerable depth. On the moon
there is no rain to rust or rot, no vek-
citation to soften and darken the sur
face; the intense heat is the cause of
expansion, the cold of contraction. and
each must be sudden, thus producing
incessant fracture in the exposed rock
so that the moons surface may well
be like a gigantic heap of CLASSY Stag
when broken up for road metal. The
innumerable faces Of these fragments
would glitter in the sunlight, and this
not improbably, would be better re-
Elected to us when II struck obliquely
on the disk of the satellite.