The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1903-11-18
Life on Other Worlds.

Ai' hIEeo nuSSel w allaCe SeeulB
sill 10 stand without company in his
theory that our little earth is the only
Inhabited planet in the universe.
Prof. f. j. Allen discusses the ques.
tion reasonably in the November Pop.
ulas Science Monthly.
The chief chsracteristic Of life, ac-
cording to Prof. Allen, is "energy
traffic" Living substance absorbs
radiant energy, stores it, and later
expends it in active forms. such as
motion, mechanical work, heat and
electricity.
On the earth this energy traffic is
carried on chiefly among tho four ele-
ments, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon and
hydrogen. For life as we know it to
exist there must be supply Of these
elements or Of others like them, uar-
row range of temperature and sup
ply oe intermittent oT variable radiant
energy. 1t is unlikely that these
conditions exist anywhere in our
solar eysten exoeps on the earth. The
sun and probably Jupiter and Saturn
are too hot.
Venus might answer the conditions,
for she has about the same size and
gravitation o: the earth, which IMPLIES
the probability that she has an atmos-
phere similar in density and compost
tion. Her nearness to the sun might
make her equatorial. regions too hot
for earthly life, but other parts Of her
surface nigh. be 70 .he =:gh. .=mpeTa-
ture. But there is strong suspicion
that Venus keeps the came side al.
ways turned toward the sun, in which
case that side would always DO scoroh-
ed and dry and the other side oased
IN ice. Mars is probably 80 cold chat
water cannot exist in liquid form
and gravitation there is too slight TO
hold an atmosphere like ours.
The planet 10 so small that little
heat can be provided from within and
is 80 far from the sun that little can
be received from without. What little
heat reaches the surface must radiate
away almost at once.
The gravitation Of Mars is 40 small
that it is doubtful whether evep the
vapor of water could be held. It
seems impossible, therefore, that
earthly life could exist there.
The moon has neither air nor water,
although some think taat geological
activity has not ceased there and the
extremes of tempersture produced by
the alienation Of half months sun.
shine with half a months darkness
might awaken to vital activity ele.
ments which behave as dead on this
earth"
On the whole, it is probable that we
are the only beings OF our kind in our
solar system. It may be, too, that
the conditions required for eartly life
are rare in other systems, although
nobody can say that they do not exist.
We know from the speotFoscope that
many stars have tho game elements
and about the same temperature as
our sun, and some Of those stars
may have planets situated like the
earth.
But there is no reason to suppose
that the life We know is the only kind
Of life there is. Other elements than
oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and carbon
may carry on ''energy traffic. If we
die of suDstroke on hot day, there
might oonceiyably be beings Who
could live in the sun itself. :'is d;f.
tsrent conditions can awaken a capa.
city FOR exalted energy traffic among
other elements than those just named,
then the universe seems to provide
immense possibilities Of life whose
variety and msgnifcence may far ex.
ceed any thing that we can imagine"
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