The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1906-08-23
BIRTH OF THE MOON
LUNA WAS FLUNG OUT OF THE EARTH
INTO SPACE.

she Once Filled, Perhaps, the Great
Basin Now Occupied by the Pacisae
ocenn-I.atcst Ideas OF science as to
Conditions ON Our Satellite.
Millions of years ago the earth was
not the land bound, sea swept globe
90 familiar TO us, but liquid mass on
which floated crust some thirty-five
miles thick, AT that period, says the
Strand Magazine, 1t turned on Its axis
at constantly increasing speed that
finally shortened the day to three hours.
When that terrific velocity was OBJ
tained 5000 cubic million miles of mat
ter were hurled Off by the enormous
centrifugal force, and our moon was
born. The cleaving of so large a body
must have left some scar on the earth's
surface. 1t has accordingly been sug-
gested that the great basin now occu-
pied by the Pacific ocean was once
filed by what is now the moon.
Our moon has the distinction Of be-
Ing the largest of all planetary sat
ellites-so large. indeed, that to the
inhabitants of Mars 1t must appear
with the earth as a wonderfully beau
tiful twin planet.
Because the moon rotates on Its axis
In exactly the same time that 1t re-
wolves around the earth we are des-
tined to see little more than one hemi-
sphere. So slow is this rotation that
the lunar day is equal to fifteen Of our
days. For half a month the moon Is
exposed to the fierce heat Of the sun;
for half mouth 1t spins through space
In the densest gloom.
Smaller in mass than the earth IL,
the moons attraction for bodies must
be correspondingly less. A good ter
restrial athlete could cover about 100
feet on the moon in running broad
Jump. and leaping over barn would
be very commonplace feat. A man
In the moon could carry six times as
much aud run six times as fast as he
could on the earth.
Although separated from us by a
distance that at times reaches 253.0O0
miles and is never less than $4,000
miles, we know more of the physical
formation OF the single pallid face that
the moon ever turns toward US than
we know of certain parts Of Asia and
the heart Of. Africa Powerful tele-
scopes have brought our satellite with
in a distance Of forty miles OF the
earth. Physicists have mathematically
weighed 1t and fixed its mass at one
eighth Of the earth. or $4,000, 900 000,-
600 tons.
The moon presents aspects without
any terrestrial parallel. Rent by fires
long since dead, its honeycombed
crust seei..s tie great globe Of chill
ed Stag. C-aters are not uncommon on
the earth, but in number, size and
structure they bear for the most part
little resemblance to those of the moon.
A lunar crater is not the mouth Of q
volcano having diameter Of few
hundred feet, but great circular plain
twenty, fifty, even a hundred miles
in diameter. surrounded by precipice
rising to a height of 5000 or 10000
feet, with central hill or two about
half as high.
Water cannot possibly exist US a
liquid, for the temperature of the
moons surface during the long lunar
night is probably not far from AGO
degrees below the zero mark OF
Fahrenheit thermometer, and the at
mospheric pressure is so low that q
gas under pressure would solidify as
it escaped. Ice and snow are the