Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1922-01-09
LATEST NEWS FROM MARS
BY Frederic J. Haskin

them all about the climate ir Mars.
what Kind of underwear they viii
need. how many blankets AZ nl5ht and
all that sort ~ thing
Ia the first place, they are ebie 70
compute the size of Mars with great
accuracy. n Is 1900 miles IN diameter
which means that II Is only about
welve per cent az great az rhe nar,h in
bulk--quite a small place as Stars 10.
| 4 sort Of s;opher Prairie an1cnz the
habItabie planets.
| As a result Of being such I, light
| weight world Mars enjoys ar ex-
| tremely low force OF gravity. At The
surface Of Mars the force Of gravity
Is only about two fftns of that AZ the
surface Of the earth. T'ha means that
II you welga ITO pounds here on earth.
and you went 20 Mars, you you'd
| weigh bat sixty pounds. though you
would still nave the same strength. You
could Jump more than twice rs nigh.
and IN general you would have a most
unusual llghtness and bouyancy.
Dancing would be vastly more Of a
pleasure and not nearly 30 hard on
the giris' toes, but on the Other hand
a hivver striking a bump IN the road
would bounce about two and cne hair
|. times az high. But then. distances IN
Mars are so short that one would
scarcely need car.
Is Mars Going Dry7
As a result OF this condition, Msrs
has an atmosphere Of very light densl-
". and such an atmosphere does not
hold water well at all. Mara IS probs-
I bly, losing water vapor into space all
2 N<.r he t1.1f.f
have gone dry long ago were ths
= pply not renewed from sonne inner
J source. Professor Pickering thinks
: that there ls not more than onq thou-
q sandth as much water on Mars az
$ there Is on the face Of the earth.
I II does not follow from this. however.
! that life on Mars Is made specially
difficult by lack Of water. eW have a
great deal more water than we need
. on earth. In fact. n we could drain an
n ocean or two into space. and use the
! land Tor farming. 81 would greatly i'm
Is prove our situation.
r. In Mars. the scientists now believe.
n there probably are no permanent seas.
n The water in the form Of vapor Seems
,s to perform sort Of seasonal migrs-
2 ton from pole 10 pole. In the winter
n II covers the poles IN great snow caps
Y that are visible from the earth. IN
II spring, these snow caps rnelt with
a great rapidity, for evaporation Ia very
n rapid on Mars. Water hollis at about
n s4 degrees Fahrenheit. The melted
&c snow forms great marshes. which are
,e also visible from the earth. Ar these
rs evsporate, the winds carry the water
b. vapor back toward the Martisn equa-
r tor, and 81 falls along the way in the
1g form Of rain.
ne Our climate IS tempered by the
ne oceans. and the Marian climate. lack
ing this Influence, must be subject Il
or terrible extremes. both from seasor
~ TO season and between day and night
n It IS quite possible that the water
ie. in puddles boiIs at noon on some day,
re and freezes at night. The Mart.ani
tn must be hardy bunch.
Lack OF space makes Il impossibl
ne here 70 discuss in any detail the Mar
ng tan canals. The claim that Mars 1
q. Inhabited by intelligent beings Is base,
~ almost wholly on the contention tha
lg these long straiiiight canals could no
an be the work OF nature. The canals
a. VIII have TO be studied a great dea
RS more before science VIII have any IN
n telligent conclusion 70 offer abou
ell them.