The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1913-02-19
HIST ! EARTH IN CRASH.
SERVJSS Save
SMASH WILL COME IN 3OO.-
900 YEARS.
The sun viii be i'm it AIsO-DiscuSScs
Life on Other Planets and Explains
Why Venus May Have Inhabitants.

Baltimore Sun
dire tragedy to the earth and her
sister planets and the sun WAS nre-
dicted yesterday by Garrett p. Ser
viss, of New York and France, the
we'll known astronomer. There will
De collision, he said unless some
! change is made in the direction in
which this solar system is travelling
at the rate Of 100000 miles a wear
The solar system, he said, is speed
ing northward almost directly toward
the star Vega, which has power =
/ 600 times greater than the sun. The
crash, he said, is due in about 300
600 years.
In discussing the question Of wheth-
er other planets than the earth are
inhabited by animals similar in ma
ture to human beings, his attention
was called to Venus.
I'VE have never been able to see
the surface of Venus" said Mr.. Ser
vivss. What we see is simply an
atmospheric envelope, much denser
than that Of the earth, which reflects
| the light Of the sun with remark
able brilliance. Since Venus is about
Z6,OOO,OOO miles nearer the sun than
is the earth, it is probable that no
| beings like ourselves could live
there. 1t would be far too hot. But
we of the earth are SO anthropomor-
! phic that we cannot we'll conceive of
other kinds of human creatures. Why
could there not be beings capable of
living even under conditions that eX-
list on Venus? 1t is certainly possible.
For instance, that much nearer
the sun there may be visible light ravs
of which we know only in theory or
through scientific eXperiment-as the
ultra violet or the infra red. The in
1iuence of such rays, or Of other forces
Of which we know nothing, may tend
to foster forms of life of the highest
state Of development
| Mr.. Serviss smiled, and his eyes
tWinkled through his glasses. He is
scientific man with a great imagi-
nation, as has been evidenced in his
| quasi-scientific novels dealing with
| marvellous adventures of human be-
| ngs in the realms of space. Before
he became an astronomer Mr. Cor
Viss was a newspaper man, having
been night editor and editorial writer
on the New York Sun. SO, while he
| says that astronomy, so far as mathe-
mates is concerned, is the most exact
of sciences, it is also the one that
allows the broadest field for conjec-
ture and the untrammeled play Of
the imagination. His big purpose in
life is to popularize astronomy, for
he believes in giving to the masses of
the people those facts which ordinar-
| lily are locked in the minds of sa-
| wants
Understand" he continued, mo
astronomer can say positively that life
| exists on Venus or on any other planet
except the earth, but neither can they
prove the contrary. 1t is even con-
| ceivable that life exists on the moon
| if we can imagine creatures who
can live without air or water
That brought him to 4 discussion
lnf hn T., ID Dob w
Wood OF the Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity, of large deposits of sulphur on
the moon through his experiments
with invisible rays of the spectrum.
Such a discovery he said, was Of the
| greatest value to science and might
| lead to others Of a truly revolution
| airy nature.
When asked whether he believed
] that the so-called canals of Mars were
the work of the inhabitants of that
planet, he smiled and declared that
| that was one of the cnigmas which
| all science was trying to solve.
"One theory, you know" he said,
lis that he inhabitants (supposing, of
course, that the planet has inhabi
tants) dug those canals to catch the
water that gathers in the form of
snow and frost in the winters. That
| Is hardly tcnablc, in my opinion be-
| cause the canals must be at least 800
miles wide. \ better suggestion, I
think, is that they are fertile areas,
revealed through the telescope as
black bands, in the midst of which are
the canals, to us invisible.
| why does Mars appear red, in
| contrast with other planets. Many
| persons have asked that question. l
think it is due to the color of the
! soil on the planet. for the atmosphere