The Alaska daily empire., 1918-01-19
STUDYING MARS
lSeattle Post.Intelligencerl

Seattle Post-ntelligencer)
 If is an interest coincidence that as the grea' war in Europe is approaching climax astronomer all over the world thrilled with the prospect o' solving of the secrets of the red pane. wiits, M is named after the god of For one thing tht planet Mars will the earth than usual mex spring and will be favorably situated in the heavan for observation It is not unlikely that, with thou sands of gazing upon Mars through teIescope pc and with thousands of hands mapping it's surface tn vexatious question of the reality of the canals VII be settled indefinitely.
 Mars is so like the earth that the question O whether the planet is inhabited by beings hke earth humans has long been subject of speculation II 1877 the Italian astrooger, Schiaparel discovered { curious network of fine straight lines covering th Martian disk He called these lines canals, and iron their straightness deduced that they were the worl of intelligent engineers, and that Mars was nhapiteo Later Prof Lowell, observing with his big telescope at Flagstaff, Arizona also saw the canals and wa able to obtain photograph which showed the fain lines Prof. Picekerng, of Harvard, confirmed the existence of the canals, but astronomers eseWhere the world unable to see what he saw A dls pute arose the reality of the canals and It l by no means generally accepted that they are what their discoverers claim they are. It appears not t' depend upon the size of the telescope whether tn, canals may be seen; Schaparelli saw them with { sixinch instrument while the observers at ferke observatory using a forty-inch refracting telescope could of intricate detail but nothing thaf resembled canals.
 that of any other planet Mercury. That is te in it's sweep around the sun it's distance rom tn central luminary varies greatly Sometimes it + near and sometimes far away. It is when the plane is near the earth and the side opposite the SUI that it is most favorably placed Tor oDserVatlon is then said to be in opposition and this year Mars will be that it's disk will be much larger thar usual Astronomers have determined to make the most their opportunity and, if possible, to settle the disputed questions
 It may appear strange to many persons that when the country at astronomers about their worl as if nothing else important. However, history shows that have not affected astronomical dis coveries and. fact, of the most important ad ditions to the total of knowledge of the heavens have come to us during time. Newton, who dis covered the law of gravtation, published his "Prn cipa during the great revolution in England; Heve lius and Gassendi engaged in tremendously interest ing exchange of views at time when Europe was given over to war; Kepet's laws of the movements of planets discovered during the thirty years war and Laplace contributed his valuable works dur ing the French revolution. There halfdozeI important developments in astronomy which have occurred in tme but their recital is unnecessary The fact is that wars may and wars may go but science continues its march And doubtless the world will know as much about Mars this year it does about the grim god of