Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-03-24
Strange Life in the Moon.

| me moon Is popularity spoken of as
| a dead world, but recent observations
under our new high power telescopes
make this very doubtful
Gigantic cxhalations of tenuous va
por have been observed arising from
some of the vast cnaters on the moon.
It seems highly improbable that such
| evidences of organic life and chemical
action can exist without some form OF
| animal or vegetable life
The higll-power telescopes make It
more certain than ever that there is
no life on the surface of the moon, but
il is quito possible that life exists
within the interior of the moon in the
ereVices and cavernS with which we
must believe it to be filed
1t is permissible 10 speculate that Il
very curious form of life has devel-
pped there which has adapted itself to
existence with very little atmosphere,
no light and the proximity of volcanic
fires and hot gases. The moon crea-
lures in that case would be like the
legendary salamanders. They are
perhaps without eyes, exist by the
sense of touch, and lave developed an
insensibility To heat.
volcanic action have been observed in
the lunar crater known as Taquet.
About week after the new moen this
crater disappears entirely and is re-
placed by Il Whit patch, which dis
appears i'm its turn after a few days
and gives place TO the familiar ring
shaped appearance
Under the action of certain gealogic
phenomena which are still active in
certain points of the lunar surface, eX-
halations of |apor escape from the
great depths of the crater Taquet and
also from other chaSmS, which would
explain the variations of aspect OBJ
served in different regions. During
the long and cold night of our satellite
This vapor would be condensed at the
bottom of the abyss, after which it
would evaperate as the first rays of
the sun touched il and would fill the
crater with a cloudy mass. Finally the
crater would empty entirely by the to-
tai evaporation Of its contents under
the heat of the solar radiation.
If We suppose that these eXhaiations
are the result of an internal and ac-
cidentaI impulse, it follows that the
phenomenon observed on Taquet is
| only a temporary one; after reaching
its greatest development il ought to
diminish, and this is precisely what is
shown by the observation Of Prof.
Korn.
These enigmatie variations of the
lunar crater. Schmidt abou: 1913. es-
timated made recently on the crater
Linnaeus recall those that have just
Tn IaNaIitIc "a w
the crater in full shadow. 4 short
time afterward Grimaldi represented
ii sometimes as crater, sometimes as
a white spot. Eiccicii. in 1858, and
Schroeder, in 1888, noted it as small,
brilliant white spot. Loehrman, in 1912,
and Maedler. in 1887, indicated it, on
| the contrary, rs a deep crater.
Schmidt, about 1913, estimated that it
was 20 miles wide and 1000 feet deep;
nearly a quarter of a century later,
| in 1866 the same observer sought for
| the crater in vain. 1t had disappeared
and was replaced by a white patch.
For the last 40 years Linneaus has
been the subject of numerous discus
sions. According 20 w. II. Pickering,
| the Harvard astronomer. the white
patch decreases under the action of
| the sun. as If ii were a deposit OF
| frost OF ice.
Just as earthquakes and volcanic
phenomena are not disturbed by
| chance on our globe, we may suppose
| that il is the same nn the moon, and
that the vast and deep depression of
the Sea of Serenity corresponds To one
of the ancient points of weakness on
tie lunar surface. Perhaps there are
still manifested there feeble eruptlVe
actions, with emission of vapers car
| bonic acid, for instance.-New York
| American.