The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-18

From the Detroit NeWs-Tribpne. TT is curious how little the average per son knows about Jupiter. lie mas x heard a lot-too much perhaps-aoout Mars; but that world, 1900 times the size of ours, whirling in the terrible outer dis tance of space with it's five moons, Its IA months yearly, known as Juplter' IS ai- most if not quite, a mystery.
 In the first place, Jupiter is innapi'eo' So are some of his moons. in the midst or whidh the great planet spins around like a top at such tremendous speed that IL causes, around the equator, a furious Wihd that blows perpetually at rate or apoul 250 miles an hour.
 In the midst of this never-ending, hoWl- ing gale live the Jovians. Some astronom- CTS say that because Jupiter is so mucn bigger and heavier than the earth no creature of any weight can support itseil. A man weighing POO pounds on this earth would, if carried to Jupiter, welgh ooo pounds, and, reasoning thus, they believe that nothing bigger than cat could stand en this vast world.
 But this Is no doubt mistake. If Jupiter stood still or revolved no faster than our earth all that astronomy says would be true. and terrestrial man could not stand up on it's surface; but as fact the tre- mendous rate of revolution is so much faster than the earths that, in spite Of her monstrous size, she turns about m less than 10 hours. as against "A hours
 As it is, a man of normal earthly size if transported to the equator of Jupiter would actually feel much lighter than ne does here on earth, because the swift TO- tation of the planet would almost lift him from his feet and throw him into the heavens He would feel so light that the 250-mile -an hour tornado that blows necessarily would pick him up and carry him round and round the planet like a speck of dust.
 In order to keep on his feet the Jovian man or woman would have to be about 50 feet tall; some of them would doubtless reach the reight of 55 feet Like all big bodies, the Jovian would have a tendency to slowness of motion. Having once seated himself, he would spend good 12 hours at his breakfast, and perhaps IS at his dinner, and would probably throw up his job if his employer allowed him less than six hours for his lunch.
 The oceans of Jupiter, torn into fury by the hurricanes, would pay no attention to enc moon such as moves the tides on our earth and it takes no fewer than five of these satellites to perform this work for Jupiter They travel at various rates of speed, some flying very close to Jupiter's surface, and others far off. They have atmospheres somewhat like ours on earth, and moonlight on Jupiter is, indeed, G
 glorious sight, for these moons have q variety of color; two are blue, one IS yell low and one red
 Jupiter needs all her moons at night for illumination, for without them her five hours of darkness would be black indeed.
 So distant is the sun that broad daylight i, hardly brighter than twilight on earth. and one lone moon would not reflect enough of the suns rays to guide the | Jovian footsteps
 | In the polar and semipolar areas the l o50- -mile-an-hour tornado of the equator
 is not present; doubles there are eddies
 and occasional windstorms, such as there
 are on earth. And in these localities it is | possible for smaller creatures to exist, and here, too, vegetation would flourish. The food supply of Jupiter must come from l these areas, where 1t is cultivated and
 shipped to the equatorial regions by the diminutive races. The polar oceans are
 not frozen because of the great internal heat of Jupiter. And on these still oceans probably ships not greatly different from ours ply; but about the equator the un- ending storm would make surface sailing l impossible.
 | If there are ships at all at the equator I they are submarines, which dive into the l calm depths beneath the surface. Loco
 motion by flying machines is extremely easy on the equator because, by taking advantage of the wind, the Jovians can navigate their planet at tremendous speed 1 It is possible that because of the noiss
 in the wind-swept equator the Jovian IS deaf.