The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-08-02
SIGNALS FROM THE STARS.
-,t.b scientists Alleged DiscOV-
-, ProvOI<es Much Discussion.

This question is again Drought " tic
nv the announcement that Prof.
sr.su--vho of all living astronomers
lows most about the red planet-has
n .+ observed a brilliant projection
L, the edge of it's disk. The bril-
INV nU inaginations of H. G.. Wells have
h l'a.i-ir5rized us all with the POSSIBLE
a. of life on Mars and no one who
L i.s rsad The War of the Worlds" can
hain shuddering slightly when he re-
msnbers that just such projection
indicated the commencement OF that
.nrrifving invasion. Let us be reaS-
,,ra5 Astronomers will tell us that,
san.ayer realistic Mr.. Wells story
.samed it is practically impossible that
menlzfud should ever have to fight for
+s life against a Marian army, and the
hynothesis that what Prof. Lowell saw
vas the flash caused by the firing of a
tnga gun at the earth may be put out
Of court.
# is with less certainty, however,
NAT we can decided that the signal the
ory is equally impossible. Indeed, one
@n hardly go so far as to say that it
i entirely inadequate to explain this
injection though the improbability of
is being intended for our notice and
reduced by quasihuman agency is con-
Siderable In the first place, aStrono-
mers admit that the existence of life
somewhat akin to our own on Mars is
highly probable.
Not Alone In Progress.
In the nature of things there is no
ground for supposing that the earth
should be the only planet on which
evolution has run the course which
happens to have resulted in producing
our noble selves. Setting aside the
hypothesis of a special creation and a
divine reason for favoring the earth
beyond any other planet-which may
be true. but is not amenable to discus
sion by the light of that ordered rea-
son which We shall call sci
that. if the planets are but
cooled and hardened portions of the
same original nebula the real marvel
s would be not that life should exist on
other planets, but that it should have
come into being on the earth, alone.
Similar causes must be assumed to
N produce similar effects, though man is
100 apt to think that an exceptional in
trast and merit attach to the incon-
siderable planet that has had the hon
N Of bearing him.
If. then, we must assume the proba-
blty that there are "other worlds than
ours" other sentient beings within the
limits of our system, where are we to
n look for them?
Every argument points to Mars as
the most likely place. The outer plan
n cts are too far from the sun for such
life as we know to maintain itself up
on them; in the remote GOODNESS of
n Neptune or Uranus only algae or bac-
terra could live with any comfort, and
imagination refuses to conceive a civil
4 lied society of typhoid germs. Jupiter
is almost certainly still in a state of
y red heat, and one might as we'll try to
a live in a Dutch oven as where Mer-
4 curry swims in the sunbeams. The mi
4 nor planets, those disjected members
a Of a planet that never was, are
4 barred by our knowledge of physics,
which tells us that not even the larg-
= est of them can possess any vestiges
n Of an atmosphere, while the smaller
ones are so ill-provided with gravitat-
Ing force that an ordinary mans
jump would take him away into in
finite space. 1t would be rash, per-
haps, to assert that life without an at
mOsphere is impossible, but we cannot
conceive it.
Life on Planetary NeighbOrs.
There remains, then, only our two
nearest neighbors, Mars and Venus, as
the possible homes of such life as we
can imagine to exist in conditions not
too utterly unlike our own.
There are grave difficulties in the
way of studying Venus from this point
Of view. and attention has been con-
centrateG on Mars, where Some eminent
astronomers believe that they found
evidence for the existence of intelli-
gent beings. The evidence is rather
thin indeed, consisting mainly III the
demonstration that Mars is suited for
the existence Of life. In tine first place,
Nars Possesses an atmosphere much
aore rariticd tLan our oNn-its pres
sure IS probably not more than two OF
'hree pounds to the square inch, coz
!espoudlng to Il barometric reading of
hVe or six inches of morcury-but still
eonceNably adequate to support life
mat had been developed in it, though
man transported thither or a Marian
suUdcAy brought hither would equally
Ne unable to survive without u diving
Costume.
rms is proved not only by spectros-
scope observations which have shown
he presence OF an atmosphere contain
ns water vapor, but by the regular
ma'ins and waning of the white
hUches of snow that surround the Mar
I HaE poles. In other physical respects
s.15S IS essentially similar to the earth,
sau a. requires no great stretch of inn
tsSIHauon to see how the human consti-
"son could be modified 20 live there.
w lar the evidence for life on Mars
S@IleS itself to asserting its posSi-
bs"'V' Direct evidence of it's prcacnce
gis 'Hen sought and. as some hold,
I'u success. This consists mainly in
tot apparently regular change of ccr-
WILL ~|t features of the planets surface,
oIL'A is attributed by Mr.. Love-, and
in'S TO the action of intelligent be-
49, Hese are the WELL known "ca-
rat', seen in the best telescopes as a
fa,"oIA of lines on the Martian sur
yaan which at certain seasons OF the
' appear to be duplicated
May Re Mere DcIusiOns.
ara 'uie observers maintain that they
H. SIMPLY an optical deluson-that
ob. 'Sh to see them is father to the
dr. auon. But a little positive evil
na.... ~ such matters outweighs much
eeSS,"NNe, II two or three men have
,os.. d. thlng it is poor answer that
,r ''S or thirty have not. Hence we
,a vhutled to consider at least as
,asolklng hypothesis the theory that
Va, singular marks are due to some
s'. engineering or agricultural oper-
~TIens on Mars
49, lhen, We assume the probability
g,sr unent life on Mars, it is an easy
r. 'o suppose that its inhabitants
bs1 "lsh to communicate with other
IN lbs just as we should dearly like
t@iAnunicate with them Hence it
,o',eh supposed that any remarkable
an arance on Mars may be signal 10
6,- I4dress. The chief difficulties in
Az =, interpreting such an observation
fo1i lowe L-oWeil has just made are Two