The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-06-26
ARE We ALONE?
DR.. Abbot ReOpens Query Re-
garding Other Planets.
May Be Millions Besides Earth
Inhabited, He Declares.

Washington, June 26.-While there
may be many worIds-millions of
them-populated by beings and Gull
tured by civilizations the planet
assistant secretary of the Smithson-
| ian Institution, is the only one known
| to scientists whose conditions most
nearly approximate those under which
| life thrives.
Writing in the annual report of the
institution, just made public. DR.. Abb
bot, while he does not declare Venus
to be inhabited, rejects the possibility
of other nearby planets holding in
telligent life
DR.. Abbot does cite, however, the
chance that there may be any num-
Der of celestial bodies, yet invisible
thru the most powerful telescope, on
which there may thrive some sort of
life
As is well known, the scientist
states, stars are suns like our own,
and just as Old Sol has his retinue
of satellites, of which one, at least, is
have one or more populous followers.
However, most of these are so far
from us, he says, that it is hardly con-
ceivable telescopes will ever be so per-
fected as to detect their systems, If
they have them, or decide whether or
not such bodies do exist.
THE probability is that they do So"
DR.. Abbot states, and in such i'm
InenSe numbers lIldI aiming LISHI
there may well be many suitable for
abodes of intelligent life. This sub
ject, of course, opens the door wide
for speculation, but this field lies so
far from the realms of certainty that
it is mot my purpose to enter upon
it here
The moon, he continues, is known
to be a waterless, air-less, noun
famous desert. There is no proba-
b.lity whatever that intelligent life
can be there. No living things, scarce
ly even the hardest chemical COM
pound, can exist upon the sun be-
cause of the intense heat. Water, if
it could reach the sun as steam would
be instantly separated into its COM
ponent gases, oxygen and hydrogen.
OF the suns outer planets, Nep-
tune, Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter are
considered to be composed of gases
on these would be rejected for that
reason alone. Their temperatures
however, also would render them I'M
fit for life: that of Neptune being
estimated at minus 400 degrees
Fahrenheit, Uranus, minus $50 de-
grees, Saturn, minus $50, and Jupiter,
minus 27O. Moreover. their density
is another factor; the density of
Jupiter, which is the greatest of the
four, is only Is that of water.
AS shown by its low reflecting
power, Mermury, Doctor Abbott de-
clares, like the moon, is an airlesS,
waterless waste. and being besides
baked by a torrid heat, twelvefold
that of our own planet, there can be
no thought of life there.
The main requisites OF life are light,
certain inorganic salts, carbon COM
pounds water and warmth. Plant and
life requirements of light are very
elastic. Plants grow and animals
thrive on earth where light is a thou
sandfold less than daylight. and the
full sun is far from being too strong
for most of them.
AS to Mars, the scientist declares, !
thoro researches have shown the at
mosphere of that body to contain less
than one-fifth the wafer vapor found |
on the summit of Mount Hamilton in |
the coolest, cIearest winter nights. |
The solar radiation received on Mars |
is only six-tenths of that on the earth, |
and, with no moisture blanket in the |
atmosphere to conserve the heat. !
Mars's temperature is estimated to |
approximate so degrees below zero, |
Fahrenheit. Telescope studies reveal |
no clouds on Mars, Doctor Abbot de- |
clares. in stating that he cannot ac-
cept the views of those who claim |
great things for Mars"