The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-09-22
BIRTH OF THE NOON.

was not the land bound, sea swept
globe so familiar to us, but liquid
mass on. which Aoated crust some
thirty-five miles thick. At this Pc
riod, says the Strand Magazine, it
turned on its axis at constantly in
creasing speed that finally shortened
the day to three hours. When that
terrific velocity was obtained 5000
cubic million miles of matter were
hurried off by the enormous centrif-
ugal force, and our moon was born.
The cleaving of SO large body must
have left some scar on the earth S
surface. 1t has accordingly been
suggested that the great basin now
occupied by the Pacific ocean was
once filled by what is now the moon.
Our moon has the distinction of
being the largest of all planetary sat
ellites-so large, indeed, that to the
inhabitants Of Mars it 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
revolves around the earth we are
destined to see little more than one
hemisphere. So slow is this rotation
that the lunar day is equal to fifteen
of our days. For half month the
moon is exposed to the fierce heat of
the sun; for half a month it spins
through space in the densest gloom.
Small in mass than the earth is,
the moons attraction for bodies
must be correspondingly less. A
good terrestrial athlete could cover
about 100 feet on the moon in run
ming broad jump, and leaping over a
barn would be very common place
feat. A man in the moon could
carry six times as much and run six
times as fast as he could on the
earth.
Although separated from us by a
distance that at times reaches 1885,
900 miles and is never less than 222,-
600 miles, we know more of the phys
ical 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. Pow
erful telescopes have brought our
satellite within a distance of forty
miles of the earth. Physicists have
mathematically weighed it and fixed
its mass at one-eighth of the earth, or
5000, ,ooo, 900, 900 tons.
The moon presents aspects with
out any terrestrial parallel. Rent
by fires long since dead, its honey
combed crust seems like globe OF
chilled Stag. Craters are not uncom-
mon 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 a diameter of few
hundred feet, but a great circular
plain twenty, fifty, even a hundred
miles in diameter, surrounded by a
precipice rising to height Of 5000
or 10, 900 feet, with central hill or
two about half as high.
Water cannot possibly exist as a
LIQUID, for the temperature of the
moons surface during the long lunar
night is probably not far from 400
degrees below the zero mark of a
Fahrenheit thermometer, and the at
mospheric pressure is so low that a
gas under pressure would solidify as
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
exceedingly rare that startling ef-
fects are produced. Perhaps the
most striking is that of the sunrise.
Dawn and the soft golden glow that
ushers in terrestrial day there cannot
be. The sun leaps from the horizon
a flaming sickle, and the loftier
peaks Immediately fash into light.
There is no azure sky tC relieve
the monotonous effects of inky black
shadows and dazzling white expan-
ses. The sun CLEANS in fierce splen-
dor, with no clouds to diffuse its
binding light. All day long it is
accompanied by the weird zodiacal
light that we beheld at rare in
tervals.
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
exhibit to us even on the clearest of
moonless nights at sea. They shine
steadily, too, for it is the earth's at
mosphere that causes them to twin
kle 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 sunrise and grad
ually 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 alti
tudes after a lapse of few days.
In the polar regions they have never
been seen. What are they? Organ
ic life resembling vegetation, an
swers Professor Pickering of Har-
ward University, vegetation that
hourishes luxuriantly while the sun
shines and withers at night.
A single day, it may be urged. is
not sufficiently long for the develop
ment and decay of vegetation, but
sixteen hours on the moon is little
more than half an hour on the earth
a day lasts half a month and may be
regarded as miniature season.
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