Connecticut western news., 1906-09-27
BIRTH OF THE MOON
LUNA WAS FLUNG OUT OF THE EARTH
 INTO SPACE.


 Ocepn-Latest Ideas of Science as to
 Conditions on Our Satellite.
 Millions of years ago the earth was not the land bound, sea swept globe so familiar to us, but liquid mass on which foated crust some thirty-five miles thick. At that period, says the Strand Magazine, 1t turned on it's axis at a constantly increasing speed that finally shortened the day to three hours. When that terrific. velocity was ob- 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 body must have left some scar on the earth's surface. It has accordingly been sug- gested that the great basin now occu- pied by the Pacific ocean was once filled 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 it 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 month 1t spins through space in the densest gloom.
 Smaller in mass than the earth is, the moons attraction for bodies must be correspondingly less. A good ter restrial athlete could cover about 120 feet on the moon in a running broad jump, and leaping over a barn would be very commonplace feat. A man in the moon could carry six times as much and run six times as fast as be could on the earth.
 Although separated from us by distance that at times reaches 253,0OO miles and is never less than 222,00O 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 distance of forty miles of the earth. Physicists have automatically weighed 1t and fixed its mass at one eighth of the earth, or 73,0O0O0O,OO0,- 900 tons. , The moon presents aspects without any terrestrial parallel Rent by fires long since dead, it's honeycombed crust seems like great globe of chill ed slag Craters 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 a volcano having diameter of a few hundred feet, but great circular plain twenty, fifty, even 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 as liquid, for the temperature of the moons surface during the long lunar night Is probably not far from 46O degrees below the zero mark of Fahrenheit thermometer, and the at- mospheric pressure is so low that gas under pressure would solidify as it escaped. Ice and snow are the forms, then, which lunar water must assume
 Because of the present paucity of water the moons atmosphere is so ex- ceedingiy rare that startling effects are produced. Perhaps the most striB~ ing is that of the sunrise. Dawn ana the soft golden glow that ushers h terrestrial day there cannot be. The sun leaps from the horizon a flaming sickle, and the loftier peaks imme- diately flash into light.
 There is no azure sky to relieve the monotonous effects of inky black shad- ows and dazzling white eypanses. The sun gleams in fierce splendor, with no clouds to diffuse it's binding light. All day long it Is accompanied by the weird zodiacal light that we behold at rare intervals.
 Even in midday the heavens are pitch black, so that. despite the sun- light, the stars and planets gleam with a brightness that they never ex- hibit to us even on the dearest of moonless nights at sea. They shine steadily, too, for it is the earth's at- mosphere that causes them to twinkle to our eyes.
 In the line of sight it is impossible to estimate distances, for there is no such phenomenon as aerial perspec- tive. Objects are seen only when the rays of the sun strike them.
 At times there may be observed spots which darken after sunrise and gradually disappear toward sunset. They cannot be caused by shadows, for shadows would be least visible when the sun is directly overhead.
 They appear most quickly at the equator and invade the higher aiti- tudes after a lapse of few days. In the polar regions they have never been seen. What are they2 Organic life resembling vegetation. answers Pro lessor Pickering of Harvard univer sity, vegetation that flourishes luxuri- antly while the sun shines and withers at night