Arizona republican., 1909-11-29
NOT OF VOLCANIC ACTION
But Like the American Theory of the Destruction of the Maine, His is That Force Was Exerted From the Outside r.

San Francisco. Cal. Nov. 2s.-Ex- i tending and completing his researches { on the origin of the planets and satel- | lites of the solar system. earlier ac- counts of which were made public in January and June of the present year. | Professor T. J< J. See. United States | Navy, the astronomer in charge of the naval observatory at Mare Island. gave last night to the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. an explanation of the
 origin of the craters of the moon, and then proceeded to apply the new the
 Ory to the Obliquides of the planets.
 which. he said. overcame the last diff ficulty in the way of the Capture The ory." recently advanced by him as sup { planting the nebular hypothesis of Laplace.
 Professor See announced that the , lunar craters were undoubtedly due to the impact of smaller satellites against
 the surface of the moon. and not to
 volcanic action. as had been generally
 believed since the time of Calico. The view that the lunar craters might be
 due to impact. he said. had occurred
 to Proctor as long ago as 1873. and had
 been mentioned as a curiosity by New
 comb in 1878: while 1t had been more
 fully developed by Dr. c. K Gilbert. of the United states geological survey. in
 1892. But the impact theory had never
 been accepted by geologists or astron-
 omers. and was not mentioned in any
 recent works on astronomy. so great
 has been the force of traditional Opin- ion inclining to the old volcanic theory.
 f.1 .rrf
 detailed reasons which, he claims. were absolutely decisive against the vol caIiic theory. and remarked that there would now be less difficulty in seeing the truth of the impact theory than formerly. because he had recently prov ed that the moon is not part of the earth thrown off by rapid rotation, but a planet captured from space. The new theory of the capture of the moon, he said. had been favorably received by the scientific world, but it would be of still greater use in bringing 10 light other discoveries; such as those an nOunced tonight.
 pr See said the typical crater on the moon was a very large circular de- precision with steep walls inside and slOping walls outside, and a smali peak in the center. with the top of it below ! the average level of the lunar Nsurfaee. | If any one supposed the craters tn be ! volcanic. it was impossible to account for the Impressions where the craters ! stand: and no forces directed from {, within could dig out the circular trough about the peak in the center. | Then. too, the way the craters lie over one another shows that they are noth- | ing but satellite indentations. About the newer craters, as Copernicus, Ty | cho. Aristarchus. etc, the bright rays radiating in all directions show that at the time of the collisions the force was melted. vaporized and driven out from these centers in all directions. A | satellite hitting the moon might have ! it's temperature raised to four thou | sand degrees or higher, and the bright ! rays from the craters were due to the spattering of highly heated matter.
 The blazing flash seen in target | practice when shot hits the target | was familiar to officers of the military | service, and the fIattening and spread ing of the projectile was such as to give a peak in the center Of the mashed ! shell. while at the same time a rim is | formed around it, just like that seen about the craters on the 'moon. But | the shot fired in the mightiest target practice on the earth is as nothing compared to that in the heavens, where !! satellites from 20 to 50 miles in diam- eter had been hurled against the lunar surface with a velocity of over a mile a second, and thus produced blazing conflagrations sometimes covering the whole side of the moon.
 Professor see pointed out that many of the craters are largely covered with lithic rain, which had fallen from such conflagrations. There is no air about the moon in which it could long re- main suspended. He said that the moon had never had any seas or small CT bodies of water. and that the lunar mountains were entirely due to impact of satellites against the surface: but siOns had occurred before the moon ! was captured by the earth, and, there fore. while the moon was still revolv- ing in the region now occupied by the Asteroids. The smaller asteroids are | about the size of the falling bodies which have produced the larger lunar craters-from twenty to sixty miles across This is about the size of the planet Eros. which approaches nearer the earth than any other known planet.
 The roughness of the surface of our