The Hawaiian gazette., 1905-09-01

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temperature never rises above the melt.
ing point of ice when the sun is hot.
test, and is probably several hundred
degrees below zero during the night.
Then, you ask, has any one ever seen
snow or ice on the moonf
Among the lofty lunar Apennines,
towering twenty thousand feet above
lthe Sea of Showers, white peaks blaze
out in the sunshine. Within the larger
lunar craters a silver lining CLEANS
brilliantly. On the slopes of many
mountains, on the walls and central
cones of the smaller cratcrs, white
caps strangely flash into view after
daybreak, only to fade away again as
the sun rises higher and higher, and to
reappear as it sets. From Tycho and
several other prominent craters long,
spoke.like streaks radiate for hundreds
of miles-also white, also mysteriously
evanescent under the rays of the rising
sun.
What is this argent panoply7 In
the eyes of the old astronomer, the in
applicable chatoyant play of light and
shade; in the eyes of Professor Picker
ing and his adherents, merely snow, ice,
and boar frost, melting as it should
melt under the rays of the sun, and
crystallizing once more into white
deposit at nightfall. 1t is snow and
ice that CLEAN in the rays of Tycho,
| rays that are now regarded merely as
deep crevices in which the impounded
snow can be seen only when the sun is
at the zenith; and snow and ice, too,
AZ n in, ha 20 xx.tth x.rh,
Up to the present time, no one has
| satisfactorily explained the puzzling
notifications in two craters known as
Messier and Messier A. One man finds
them as like in size and shape as two
drops of water; another considers them
\ wholly dissimilar. Sometimes Messier
seems the larger of the pair, and some
times Messier A. Modern instruments
of precision never lie; each observer ia
| right. If any evidence were demanded
of physical changes on the moon, this
| pair of craters would furnish all that is
needed. A consideration of the time of
lunar day when the two undergo their
enigmatic gyrations has convinced Pro-
fessor Pickering that the phenomenon
is due entirely TO the varying distribu-
ton of hoar frost.
Night after night, any one with a
fairsized telescope may see many round
craters distorted by melting SHOWS into
queer forms. Because these forms are
never twice alike at corresponding
times of observation, they can be oc-
casioned only by evaporating snow.
THE PROBLEM OF A LUNAR
| ATMOSPHERE.
If there be snow and ice on the
moon, and if this snow and ice melt
the moon ought to have an atmosphere
Now, if there is anything of which as
tronomers have felt unshakably GER
tain, 1t Is the utter lack of any lunar
atmosphere. No one ever saw clouds
on the moon; and clouds are usually the
accompaniment of an atmosphere. The
light of the stars that drift behind our
satellite as it swims through the
heavens is never bent out of its course
near the edge Of the moon, as it ought
to be if there were a gaseous envelope
i Strong as these arguments may be
they apply only to fairly dense atmos
pheres. If the moon has an atmosphere
it must be so exceedingly rare that
even the occultation of star can moi
indicate>its presence. The force OF
gravitation ON the moon is so very
much less than it is on the earth that
oxygen would escape from the moon
with about the same facility as hydro
gen from the earth. That there is a
lunar atmosphere, however, Professor
Pickering has demonstrated by the best
possible Photographic proof.
If you can prove that, why not also
prove that there is organic life on the
mooni
First you must analyze your atmos
phere, and determine if it is chem
ically able to sustain life. 1t has been
stated that the moon IS few active vol
canoes vomit water and gas. Judged
by earthly standards, that gas can only
be carbonic acid, which is so heavy
that it must cling to the planet more
tenaciously than any other. Given q
sphere, therefore, on which there is
water in the form of ice, snow, and gas
and on which there is also carponlc
acid, the food Of plants, is there any
good reason why vegetation should not
be PRESENT.
| EVIDENCES OF LIFE ON THE
MOON.
Shortly after sunrise spots appear on
the moon, which rapidly darken to-
ward noon and fade away with the set
ting of the sun. Sometimes they are
inky black, sometimes gray. They are
particularly noticeable at the equator
although they are not lacking in what
would correspond with the temperature
zones of our earth. Never are they
seen at the poles.
| Perhaps they are merely shadows, il
may be suggested. But long shadows
are not east when the sun is directly
overhead. Perhaps they are due tt
some mineral. But no mineral has ye
been discovered that darkens. as thu
sun shines upon it and then palS again
These variable spots are caused only
by vegetation, according to Professor
Pickering; and his simple view, it mus
be confessed, is the most satisfactory
that has yet been advanced.
~ How is it possible for organized lif'
to withstand the bitter cold of thu