The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-02-03

Professor Pickering Of Harvard criti.
cizes Astronomers for Assuming
Life There Is Observation-Disclosures
Of Life More Easily T%raceabIe on
Moon Than on Mars, He Declares
Day on Moon Equal to About Two
Weeks of Our Time.
The u|nWarranted assumption that
the moon is dead and that nothing
can live on its surface has caused as
tronomers TO fail to study it, accord
ing to Prof. William ii. Pickering of
Harvard, n of the greatest living
astronomers, who in a report on two
years observation Of the moon asserts
that the existence OF life is more cas-
lily traceable on the moon than on
Mars.
Crops grow on some parts of the
moon at the rate of w a day, the day
on the moon being as long aS-two of
our weeks. They are believed to
grow only in the c%raters, with which
the face Of the moon Is extensively
pitted and which are believed to con
tain water and possibly Il supply OF
heat. Professor Pickering has discoy.
cred steam issuing from some of the
supposedly dead craters. The assump.
ton has been that, because the moon
had no atmosphere and because its
temperature VAS presumably hundreds
Of degrees below zero, no life could
exist there.
Doctor Pickering is now in Europe
His colleague, Prof. S. |. Bailey of
Harvard, said:
professor Pickering has not as yet
been able TO convince many aStrOn.
omers that he is right In his diScOv.
cry of life on the moon. He has made
n prolonged study of the subject with
Il telescope at Jamaica and is con,
vinced that the markings which he
finds on the moon are caused by vege.
tatiOn, but some others think the mark
ings are shadows. My own attitude
Is one of doubt.
May Be Life in Low Form.
"NO scientific mar has advanced the
theory that there is intelligent life OF
the moon. If there is life, it is he
lieved to be a low form. OF course
no one can say positively that intel
iigent life does not exist there"
In his report on this phase of his
study of the moon, which has Just
been published in Popular Astronomy
"
u scientific publication issued at North
field, Mimi, Professor Pickering critl
ciZes astronomers in severe terms foI
neglecting the study Of the moon, be
cause Of an improved hypothesis that l.
was ~lifelesS. He emphasized the fac
that Mars Is 200 times further away
from the earth than the moon Is, &c
that, other things being equal, 200 times
Ms much detail can be seen on the
moon as on Mars. Professor Picker.
ing is one OF the chief living authorl
ties on Mars, where he also believe,
that life exists.
When the moon energies from iti
two weeks of darkness and a degree
OF cold probably unknown on earth
the suns light quickly warns up the
fields in the great moon c~raters, some
of which are many miles across, anC
starts a mushrO0m-like growth Of life
there, according to the Pickering the
Dry. This fiouriShes during the Ions
moon day. None OF it lasts overnight
that is, over the moon night Of two
weeks.
Professor Pickering found canals
or runs of vegetation on the moon
as on Mars, and was able, because o
the nearness Of the moon, to trace thu
intricate patterns of growing fields, a!
he regarded them.
He did this with an inferior tele
scope at the Harvard observatory a.
Vaudeville, Jamaica, which location II.
Of special advantage in examining The
moon. His instrument, a small n
is more than fifty years old. His re
searches are expected to result il
bringing powerful telescopes to beal
on the moon for the special study O:
living things alleged to be found IL
the craters.
"Of the nearly 1900 known bodies
not counting comets and meteor
swarms, comprising our solar SYSTEM
Professor Pickering said in his report
there are only three with whose solit
surfaces we are at all familiar. There
are, Of course, the earth, u twin tb
moon and the planet Mars.
ION each Of these three vegetable
life exists, but strangely enough whih
It's existence is now probably general!
conceded on Mars. 1t is quite safe t.
say that the vast majority Of astronO
mers would definitely deny it in TIN
case OF the MOON. This az first SEEM
odd, because the surface changes, b.
which it can only be recognized, ar,
much more readily seen on the moor
than they are on Mars.
1.-THE explanation is probably two
fold. AS far as our terrestrial eXpe
rianoa COOS vpopfation requires Spy