Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-08-03
THE PLANET JUPITER
A Monster World, 1900 Times
 the Size of Ours.
WHIRLs WITH AWFUL SPEED.
1t Spins Around at Such Fearful Gait That Furious Gale Perpetual ly Encirelcs Its Equator-lts Fossil hla hahifants and Its Mnons


 ble inhabitants and It's Moons.
 It is curious how little the average person knows about Jupiter. He has heard lot. too much perhaps, about Mars. but that world, 1900 times the size of ours. whirling in the terrible outer distance of space with its five moons, its IA months yearly. known as Jupiter is almost if not quite myS tery.
 In the first place, Jupiter, according to some astronomers, is inhabited. So are some of its moons, in the midst of which the great planet spins around like top at such tremendous speed that it causes around the equator furious wind that blows perpetually at rate of about 250 miles an hour.
 In the midst of this never ending, bowling gale live the Joyians. Some astronomers say that because Jupiter is so much bigger and heavier than the earth no creature of any weight can support itself. A man weighing 200 pounds on this earth would. if car ried to Jupiter, weigh 800 pounds, and. reasoning thus. they believe that noth- ing bigger than a cat could stand on this vast world.
 But this is no doubt a mistake. If Jupiter stood still or reyolved no faster than our earth all that astronomy says would be true, and terrestrial man could not stand upon its surface. But as a fact the tremendous rate of revo- lution is so much faster than the earth's that in spite of its monstrous size it turns about in less than ten hours as against our twenty-four hours.
 AS it is, a man of normal earthly size, if transported to the equator of Jupiter, would actually feel much lighter than he does here on earth. be- cause the swift rotation 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 incessant- ly would pick him up and carry him around and around the planet like a speck of dust.
 In order to keep on his feet the Jovian man or woman would have to be about fifty feet tall. Some of them would doubtless reach the height of ffty-five feet. Like all big bodies. the Jovian would have tendency to slow ness of motion. Having once seated himself, he would spend good twelve hours at his breakfast and perhaps eighteen at his dinner and would prob ably 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 atten- tion to one moon such as moves the tides on our earth, and 1t 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 of. They have atmos- | pheres somewhat like ours on earth, and a moonlight on Jupiter is indeed glorious sight. for these moons have variety of colors. Two are blue, one is yellow and one red.
 { Jupiter needs all its moons at night for illumination. for without them its five hours of darkness would be black indeed. So distant is the sun that broad daylight Is 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 2J0 mile an hour tornado of the equa- tor is not present. Doubtless there are eddies and occasional windstorms such as there are on earth. And in these localities 1t Is possible for smnller creatures 10 exist. and here. too. vege- tatlon would flourish. The food sup ply of Jupiter must come from these areas. where 1t is cultivated and ship ped 10 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 amending storm would make surface sailing impossible.
 If there are ships at all at the eQua- tor they are submarines which dive Into the calm depths beneath the sur face. Locomotion by flying machines Is extremely easy on the equator be- cause. by taking advantage of the wind. the Jovians can navigate their planet at tremendous speed.
 It is possible that because of the noise in the wind swept equator the IovIan is deaf.
 Quite likely. ou the other hand he has good ears. but with device. either artificial or contributed by nature. for stopping his ears. except when be wishes to listen.
 This tremendous. good natured To- vian has a leather-like skin to protect himself from the scratches of flying things and device for sitting the afr that be brcathes. for Jovlan atuos- Ihere is full of dust. and in spite of the dIficulties of his existence be is a bong lived gentleman On the averaes be exists for about so of sur years. Probably many a Iovian exists a full thousand of orr little years.-Dst-rit