The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1906-10-06
BIRTH OF TILE NOON.


she once Ffmed. Perhaps, the Greaa
/ BaaIn Now OccuPfed by the PaeIA9
1 Oeeaa-La4es4 Ideas q SefenaS - -
Conditions on Our sateMIte.
Millions of years ago the earth was
not the land bound. sea swept globe
50 familiar to us. but liquid mass on
which hoated crust some thirty-fvo
miles thick. at that period. says the
strand Magazine. it turned on its axis
at a constantly Increasing speed that
finally shortened the day to three hours.
When that terrific velocity was OBJ
tanned 5000 cubic million miles of mat
| ter were hurled OF 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
dIled by what Is now the moon
Our moon has the distinction Of be-
ing the largest of all planetary sat
elIites-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 70
wolves around the earth we are des-
tined to see little more than one heml-
sphere. So slow is this rotation that
the lunar day Is equal to fifteen OF our
days. For half a month the moon Il
exposed to the fierce heat of the sun;
for half a month It spins through space
in the densest gloom.
Smaller in mass than the earth d,
the moons attraction for bodies must
be correspondingIy less. A good ter
restrial athlete could cover about 100
feet on the moon in running broad
Jump, and leaping over barn would
be a very commonplace 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 $4,000
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 it and fixed-its mass at one
eighth of the earth. or $1,000, 100000
600 tons.
The moon presents aspects without
any terrestrial parallel. Rent by fires
long since dead, its honeycombed
crust seems like a great globe of chilli
ed Stag. Crarers 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 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 a height of 5000 or 10000
feet, with a central hill OF two about
half as high.
Water cannot possibly exist as a
liquid, for the temperature OF the
moons surface during the long lunar
night fs probably not far from 460
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-
ceedingly rare InaL startling SuSC0
are produced. Perhaps the most strik-
ing 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 flaming
sickle. and the loftier peaks imme-
diately fash into light.
There is no azure sky to relieve the
monotonous effects of inky black shnd-
ows and dazzling white expanses. The
sun CLEANS 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 CLEAN
with a brightness that they never ex-
hibIt to US even on the cIearest of |
moonless nights at sea. They shine |
too. for it is the earth's at
that causes them to twinkle
to our eyes.
In the line of sight 1t 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 altl-
tudes after a lapse of few days. In
The polar regions they have never been