The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-05-04
Seven of Our Neighbors
 Vassals of the Central Sun

Who has not admired the brilliant and beautiful planets. members of our own solar system - glorious Venus, fiery Mars, ringed Saturn and magnifi- cent Jupiter? Possibly some of us have also spied in the twilight hour following sunset or preceding sunrise elusive Mercury, closest attendant of the sun.
 From remotest antiquity these five planets have been observed apparent ly wandering among the fixed stars, though in truth separated from them by inconceivable immensities of space. Eight planets in all, including our own little planet earth, with their attend ant moons, unceasingly encircle the sun in obedience to the universal and mysterious law of gravitation. To modern astronomers we owe the dis covery of the two outermost planets, Uranus, just at the limit of visibility of the unaided eye, and Neptune, barely showing in small telescopes the planetary disk that distinguishes it from the fixed stars far beyond.
 Of the nearer planets, Mercury Is by far the most difficult to observe, for he is lost in the solar rays most of the time. In less than three months, eighty-eight days to be ex- act, he completes his trip around the sun. During a considerable portion of this time he~is either hidden be- hind the sun or passing between us and the sum-, It is only when farthest to the east or west of the sun, at elon- gations, as it is called, that he is ob- servable. As he can never depart more than 2S degrees from the sun. he fa h1R cir cumstances, we are apt to overlook him. At eastern elongations of Mer- curry sets after the sun and is even- ing star. At western elongations he may be seen in the twilight hours just preceding sunrise as morning star. When found he delights us by appear ing as a beautiful star about as bright as brilliant Venus. Mercury is the nearest to the sun of all the planets, also the smallest, the hottest and the f1eetest. His orbit also departs more from the circular shape than does the orbit of any other planet, so that his distance from the sun varies as much as fifteen million miles. His diam eter is only about 2,SO0 miles and both Jupiter and Saturn have satel- lites that surpass Mercury in size. It is almost a certainty that Mercury al ways turns the same face toward the sun as does our own moon. The temperature, therefore, is torrid on one side, frigid on the other, and the temperature differences are made all the more extreme from the fact that he also has no atmosphere, probably as is the case with the moon, because he has sufficient gravitational force to hold one.
 In Venus we behold our sister plan- ct. The diameter of this planet is only eighty-seven miles less than our own. Venus far surpasses all the other planets in brilliancy, even Jupi- ter, the giant among them all. cam not rival her in brilliancy. This is due to the fact that she is nearer to us than any other planet. at near est approach only 2s,ooO.ooo miles away. In strong contrast to Mercury. Venus is surrounded by a dense at mosphere. The surface of the planet is hidden by clouds and no surface markings can be distinguished with certainty, and so it is still undecided whether Venus, rotates on its axis in a day about equal in length to our own or turns the same face toward the sun., Most astronomers now =incline
 
 ways toward the sun. Even if it's day is equal in length to its year, Venus would not have the extremes of tenn perature found upon Mercury, partly because it's distance from the sun is much greater and partly because of its dense atmosphere. Winds of such intensity as we never experience up- on the earth would constantly pass between the day and night sides of the. planet, tending to equalize the great extremes of temperature arising from day and night each nearly four months in length.
 Mercury and Venus, as far as we know, are unattended by satellites and are the only two planets in the solar system of which this is true. Since they have orbits lying between the earth and the sun they also have phases similar to those of the moon Venus never can be seen more than 47 degrees from the sun and more than ways morning or evening star. She can never be seen overhead in the ep- ening. but always appears in, the east ern or western skies, in early morning hours in the east preceding sunrise or in early evening hours in the west following sunset
 Mars, the small word that has arous- ed so much controversy because of it's peculiar surface markings. lies next beyond the earth as we pass outward from the sum- Its diameter is some what more than half and it's surface area less than ,one-third that of the earth Its green and reddish patch es, it's snow caps and its much talked of "canals's have interested even those most indifferent to the mysteries of the heavens Mars is the last of the terrestrial or inner group of planets. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, as distinguished from the major planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
 The orbit of Mars, which is 142,- 900, ,000 miles from the sun, is sepa- rated from the orbit of Jupiter by a vast expanse of more than 50,000,000 miles. Through this immensity of space pass the orbits of the asteroids or p1anetoids, mere fragments of plan etary matter probably in no case pos sessing diameter greater than 500 miles. To find nsfnes for the mem 1 bers of this nun rous group and keep track of their movements is be- &o cIy