Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-16
MOON AS WE KNOW TT
LATEST IDEAS OF SCIENCE AS TO
LUNAR CONDITIONS.
Maybe the Moon Came Out Of the
Pacific ocean-Long Days and
Cold Nights.

Is
Millions Of years ago the earth was not
the land-bound, sea-swept globe so familiar
to US. but a liquid mass on which doated
crust some thirty-five miles thick.
At that period It turned on it's axis at
constantly increasing speed that finally
shortened the day to three hours. When
that terrific velocity was obtained $500
cubic millions miles OF matter were hurled
of by the enormous centrifugal force and
our moon was born.
The cleaying of so large body must
have left some scar on the eaHth's surface.
1t has accordingly been suggested that the
great basin 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 satellites: SO large,
indeed, that to the Inhabitants Of Mars 1t
must appear with the earth as a wonder
fully beautiful twin planet.
Because the moon rotates on its axis in
exactly the same time that 1t revolyes
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
neon Is exposed to the fierce heat OF the
sun: for half a month 1t spins through
space In the densest gloom.
Moons Attraction.
Smaller in mass than the. earth is. the
moons attraction for bodies must be cor
respondingiy less. A good terrestrial ath-
lete 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 dis
lance that at times reaches $4,000 miles.
ana Is never less than %. zoo miles, we
know more of the physical formation of
the single pailid face that the moon ever
turns toward us than we know of certain
parts of Asia and the heart of Africa.
Powerful telescopes have brought our sat-
elite within a distance Of forty miles of
the earth Physicists have automatically
weighed II and fixed its mass at one
eightleth of the earth, or $4,000, 600 600 900
tons.
The moon presents aspects without any
terrestrial parallel. Rent by fires long since
dead, It's honeycombed crust seems like
great globe of chilled Stag 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 vol
cano having diameter of few hundred
feet, but great circular plain twenty
hfty. even one hundred miles in diameter
surrounded by a precipice rising to a
height of five thousand or ten thousand
feet. with central hill or two about half
as high.
Water cannot possibly exist as a liquid;
Tor 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
atmospheric pressure Is SO low that gas
under pressure would soldify as 1t escaped
Ice and snow are the forms, then, which
lunar water must assume.
Lunar Atmosphere.
RerauSa Of tho s,racapt ,,a,oyt,- -xo+nz
the moons atmosphere is so exceedingly
rare that startling effects are produced.
Perhaps the most striking is that of the
sunrise. Dawn and the soft golden glow
that usher in terrestrial day there cannoot
be. The sun leaps from the horizon fam
Ing sickle, and the loftier peaks Immediate
ly flash into light.
There is no azure sky to relieve the mo-
notonous effects of inky black shadows and
dazzling white expanses- The sun CLEANS In
fierce splendor. with no clouds to diffuse
its binding light All day long It is ac-
companied by the weird zodiacal light that
we behold at rare Intervals
Even IN midday the heavens are pitch
black, so that. despite the sunlight, the
stars and planets CLEAN with a brightness
that they never exhibit to us even on the
clearest of moonless nights at sea They
shine steadily. too: for 1t is the earth's
atmosphere that causes them to twinkle
to our eyes.
III tHe line OF SlSnt IL Is impossible to
estimate distances, for there Is no such
phenomenon as aerial perspective 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 over
head
They appear. most quickly at the equator
and invade the higher attitudes after lapse
OF few days. In the polar regions they
have never been seen. What are they3
Organic life resembling vegetation, answers
Prof Pickering of Harvard University:
vegetation that f1ourshes luxuriantly while
the sun shines and withers at night
A single day, 1t may be urged. is not
sufficiently long for the development and
decay of vegetation; but sixteen hours on
the moon is little more than half an hour
on the earth; a day lasts half month, and
may be regarded as miniature season