Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1912-07-10
COLOSSALJUPITE
A Wonderful World That Has Not
Yet Solicited.
THE GIANT or OUR PLANETS.
u Would Require Thirteen Hundred
Earths Rolled into One to Equal IN
Sire This Settling but Slowly Cool.
ing and Contracting Globe.


Ii Is probable thai all the millions OF
suns constituting the universe have
their planets, but the only planets we
can see are those belonging TO our sun.
and OF these Jupiter is the chief. II
would take 1900 earfhs 10 make one
Jupiter. l'uf u bi: Jack marble. about
an inch in diameter. beside an ordinary
school globe ten or twelve inches in
diameter and You will see how small
the earth would look If placed beside
Jupiter.
The surface of Jupiter Is about l2U
times as extensive AS that of the
earth. Ii we suppose il covered with
continents and ocean OF the same
shape aud relative size as those OF the
earth we can make some interesting
piter and distances on the earth. For
Instance. the American continent be-
tween New York and San Francisco Is
about 1900 miles across. On Jupiter II
would be about $1,000 miles across
The Pacific ocean stretched TO the scale
OF Jupiter would be 10000 niles
broad. and the swiftest ship vet tssit
driven continually al top speed w.,Gld
require six weeks to cross 1t.
IL the city Of New York occupied The
same relative space on Jupiter thai II
does on the earth it would be 175 II les
long from the Battery to Yonkers ine.
equal to the actual distance betw cen
New York and baltimore. Everything
would be stretched in similar proper
lions. The n would be a thou
sand feet wide and office buildings
several thousand feet high. The height
OF the Metropolitan tower would be
nearly q mile and a half.
One naturally thinks OF the bit
ants. Would they be constructed on The
same Brobdingnagian scalef III they
we're. an ordinary man on Jupiter
would be about sixty feet tall. Some
of the big broadway policemen might
Measure seventy feet in their stockings.
But a man seventy feet tail would
on the earth weigh at least 260,OOO
pounds. while on Jupiter, where the
force of gravity is more than two and
q half times as great as ON the earth
t2.5D, his weight would be 6S9.OuO
pounds!
This Is evidently more than flesh and
blood could bear. and. accordingly. II
has generally been assumed that the
Inhabitants OF immense worlds like
Jupiter (f there be any must BE- small
er instead Of larger than those or the
earth. for otherwise they could not
even stand erect. II We suppose the
proportion Of size to be inverse to that
Of the force of attraction. or the grnv-
ity. then an average inhabitant OF Jupi
ter ought to be put little more than two
feet tall.
These considerations. however. do
not affect the area OF the geographical
features Of the planet; but. on the 0 q
trary. they make 1t possible to calcu-
late for Jupiter an almost incredible
population. If Jupiter had continents
OF the same relative size as ours, con
tanning the same number OF tnhabit-
ants per unit area. It could hold. with
out being any more crowded than the
earth. a hundSed and eighty thousand
million inhabitants. But II the inhabit-
ants were mere dwarfs the number
might be increased TO q thousand thou
sand millions without straining the pro
ductiye energies of the planet to main
tain them.
These calculations have been given
merely I'm order TO make the size of
Jupiter as compared with the earth
more strikinGly apparent and not be
cause there Is any reason 10 think that
Jupiter actually has any continents Oh
oceans or any inhabitants resembling
men and women. The fact In that in
piter appears to be a globe which has
not yet soliditied- Ii Is. as ! have said.
800 times larger than the earth. but
II Is only ZIG times heavier, which
shows tia its mean density is only
about q quarter of that Of the earth
As far as the telescope shows Jupiter
u az enormous globe OF clouds, with
out anything solid about It. Their
may be u solid nucleus. but II . Il
cannot be seen.
Jupiter Is a planet that is cooling OF
and contracting and getting ready 10
solidify and TO receive the gifts that
are bestowed In due time upon all new
born worlds which are intended to sup
port tnha bitants TO watch 1t with d
telescope. To see its vast clouds boil
and gyrate n change their hnes and
It's four moon run rapidly around H.
as In play. throwing their shadows on
It's broad surface and darling into and
out OF the mighty cone OF Invisible
darkness that IL projects Into space
behind it-moons whose motions viii
be studied with all the eagerness or n
urw felt thirst for knowledge when
Jupiter shall have become the abode Of
intellectual iife-th this Is 10 peer behind
the scenes OF creation and TO discover
the true place or the earth IN the evo
lufion OF wUrIds.-Garrett p. Servfss In
New York American.