Evening star., 1927-10-04
SCENERY DIFFERS
| ON GREAT PLANETS
"Trip to Moon and Other SteI-
lar Bodies Described in
Scientific Paper.
BY THOMAS X. HENRY.

=. Supposing some hardy Noya2er from
fhe earth. using Il means of transpor-
tation as yet undreamed of, started
out for a voyage of discovery in the
solar system, landing first on the
moon end then on the planets in the
order of their distance from the sun.
Nhat would he find?
. This conception of visits TO other
worlds, which lon.. has exercised the
.nagination Of scientific romance
Writers, is considered in accurate de-
tail i'm the forthcoming report of the
Smithsonian Institution in paner
1repared by I.ucien RudauN, ceie-
trated astronomer.
. II is notable from the fact that
NJ EudauN has not uSeG his ina gina
iion hut has stuck closely to known
Iact in his imaginary voyage through
fpace.
Light Is ndiffuscd.
The first point the voyaGer would
stsit. he roints out. would be the
moon. $50 00o miles away. The astron-
Dmers know n great deal of the land
sean 0f the moon and the traveller
nrohahlv would find little that he
tould not have been told about be-
Tore he started. lie would he in 4
land If hiGh. steep mountains not
greatly different from the rouGhcr
mountainous regions of the earth. and
nf great monotonnus gray plains, ut
terlY devoid of life. broken here ana
there by immense assures whose ci-
gantic proportions have no parallel
pn earth. But. if he landed in the
lunar DAYTIME he would look upon
The circular disk Of the sun shining
IN an ink black sky with all the stars
flearly visible around it. But the So
stars will not twinkle. He would see
every detail of the landscape. near
Ind far as his eyes could reach. with
the same sharpness. There would he
no softenin- of the view in the dis
lance, because there is no air on the
moon There is nothing to scatter
the light
: If the vovacer was .there at sunrise
he would witness n far different spec
iacle than that familiar 10 The inhah-
rants Of the earth. First would ap
pear above the horizan a radiant band
If light, the suns corona. Next would
come giant rose-colored flames an.l
then the disk of the sun itself. In
hther words. he would see much tho
same thing as can he seen on earth
through q telescope at a total eclipse
bf the sun.
Earth Appears Enormous.
In the sky there will be one great
disk OF light IS times larger than the
hloon appears from the earth-the
farth itself. which is the moons moon.
, After leaving the moon the traveller
would skip to the planet Mercury,
slosest to the sun. The heat. of
eourse, could not he endured by a
human being unless it was assumed
That he had some other contrivance.
rs vet undreamed. of. 10 offset it. The
bun would appear many times greater
sl1an from the earth or the moon,
Practically nothing is known. NJ
Rudaux says. of the lanscape which
ae would encounter except that there
Is some reason to believe he would
bee very high mountains.
: The next stop is on Venus. where
The voyager probably would stop out
&c his transporta ton. contrivance into
! intense. luminous, shifting fog.
through which he could not see the
tun. and which would prevent him
from observing much of the land
scape. Probably there would he a lit
tle land and great deal of water.
The stars. it is likely. would he in
tisible through the thick clouds. If
he could see the sunset at all il prob
fbly would he much more colorfIl
than earthly sunsets.
Mars More Like Home.
The next station in this stellar voy.
tge would be Mars. where the travel,
Dr. frc n the earth might feel as if he |
Eere hack home again in many ways. |
He would be in an atmosphere quite !
tiinilar to that Of the earth and two
fmall moons would move among them. |
The earth would be visible as a bril-
liant morning or evening star. The |
Ky would appear darker during the
daytime and the sun, a third smaller
han when seen from the earth, would
Eumine less brilliantly the more
eonotonous landscape. Generally
pes king, NJ. Rudaux believes, the voy
Eger would look out over a great. /
Sbnotonous plain cut here and there
Filth enormous swamps, but with few
kills or mountains.
The next stop would be Jupiter. but
fere the voyager would find no solid
hpd to light upon. He would see the
rrn shining through stormtossed, |
tense clouds as a disk 25 times small /.
r.. than that which is seen on earth /
only five hours would intervene be- |
steen sunrise and sunset. Five
hoons. of size comparable to our own,
hight be seen through the clouds.
:. Ring Around Saturn.
Then the voya ger could fly to one
f. the moons of Jupiter. where he
night be able 10 find solid footing.
from this point OF vantage he would
Tee Jupiter itself as an enormous
hoon, 10000 times greater than the
noon as seen from the earth.
I Then he lands on Saturn. He sees
he sun shining with hundred times
nss light than on earth. The sky IS
i0tted with numerous moons and
aaversed by a luminous ring. At the
EQUATOR of Saturn this would appear
Is p luminous thread passing through