The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-07-08
THE MOON As WE NOW KNOW IT
--LATEST IDEAS or SCIENCE AS TO
LUNAR CONDITIONS.

Maybe the Moon Came 0ut Of the Pacific
Ocean Long Lunar Days and Cold
Nights-On the Noon q Coed Ter.
restrial Athlete Gould Leap y Feet.
Millions Of years ogo the earth was not
the land bound, sea swept globe 20 familiar
to us, but a liquid mass on which foated
crust some thirty Ave miles thick.
AT that period. says the Strand NJ dgasine,
1t turned on its axis at a constantly ~inoreas-
ing speed that finally, shortened the day to
three hours. When that terrific velocity
was obtained 5000 cubic million miles Of
matter were hurled Of by the cen-
trifugal force and our moon was born.
h cleaving Of 30 large a 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 filed by what is now the
moo
Our moon has the distinction Of being the
largest of all planetary satellites; 80 large,
indeed, that to the inhabitants of Mars it
must appear with the earth as a wonderfully
beautiful twin planet.
Because them moon rotates on It's axis in
exactly the same time that 1t r~evolves
around the earth we are destined to see little
more than one hemisphere. So slow ia
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 q month it spins through space
In the densest gloom.
Smaller in mass than the earth is, the
moons attraction FOR bodies must be cor
~respondingly less. A good terrestrial ath-
late oo,tlI rNvar about Ion foot ~. Al.
in a running broad jump and leapinR over
a barn would be a very commonplace feat.
A man in the moon could carry six times IA
much and run six times as fast as he could
on the earth.
Although separated from us by n dis
tance that at times reaches 26s 600 miles,
and is never less than 222 900 miles, We
know more of the physical formation ~
the single pallid face that the moon ever
turns toward us than WI know Of certain
parts OF Asia and inc heart Of Africa. Pow
within a distance of forty miles Of the earth.
Physicists have automatically weighed il
and fixed its mass at one-eightieth of the
earth or Is. 900, 00O, ooo, 600 tons.
The moo pTesenIs aspects without any
dead, its honeyoombed crust seems like a
great globe Of chilled Stag. Craters ara not
uncommon On the earth, but in number
size, and structure they bear, for the most
part, little resemblance to those of the,
moon. 49,,
A lunar crater is not the mouth OF a vol.
| cano having d diameter of a few hundred
feet, but a great circular plain twenty.
fifty, even one hundred miles in diameter
surrounded by a precipioe rising to a height
q central hill or two about half as high.
Water ann possibly exist as a Houid.
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 t~ahrenhelt Thermometer, and the
atmospheric pressure is 80 low that a gas
under pressure would solidify as it ESCAPED.
| Ice n snow are the forms, then. which
lunar water must assume.
Because Of the present paucity Of water
the moons atmosphere e 30 exceedingly
Perhaps the most striking L. that Of the
sunrise. Dawn and the soft golden glow
that usher In terrestrial day there cannot
be-. The sun leaps nom tho horizon q dam.
ING sickle exc s snS the loftisr peaks ~innasdiatsly
There Is no azure .ky to relieve the mo-
n~otonous effects Of inky black shadows and
dazzling white expansesL The sun CLEANS In
herce splendor. with no clouds 70 difuse
It's Han 6lindids IL lg r. Al, Az day long II Is 20.
we behold at rare intervals.
black, d that, despite the sunlight. the
stars and planets CLEAN with q 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.
In the line Of sight II is impossible to
estimate distances, for there is no such
phenomenon a. aerial perspective. OBJ
jeots are seen only when the rays Of the
sun strike them.
At times there may be observed spots
which dariAn after sunrise and gradually
disappear toward sunset. They cannot be
caused by shadows; for shadows would BE-
least visible when the sun 10 directly over
head.
They appear most quickly at the equator,
and invade the higher attitudes after a lapse
OF q few days. In the polar regions they
have never been seen What are they?
Organic life resembling vegetation, answers
Prof. Pickering Of Harvard University;
vegetation that hourishes luxuriantly while
the sun shines n withers at night.
A single day. It 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; o day lasts half a month, and
be regarded as o miniature season.