Evening star., 1935-09-29
TALE OF THE HIGH HEAVENS
Henry Norris RUSSELL Leader of Sciences Srangest Adventure
Carries Readers Over Two Billion Years in Story of
"A Very Great Event"

picture of present-day knowledge and
speculation concerning this cosmic
atom-more than three billion miles in
radius-of which the earth on which
We live forms part. Concerning it
some of the most astounding and
colorful of recent discoveries have
been made and some of the most in
triguing speculations launched.
Astronomy, as appears clearly from
the professors pages, is one subject
that has lost nothing from the exami-
nation and analysis of science. The
heavens on a starry night" which
man has looked upon in awe and
wonder since the beginning Of his life
on earth, emerge from the operations
OF the telescope and the spectroscope
more weird, more sublime and more
beautiful than ever. There has been
no plucking of petals from the bios.
SONS Of the skies. The prospect has
become more immense, the vastnesses
o. space more mysterious, the con-
temptation more conducive to self
respecting humility. The penetration
of one mystery has led to a deeper
mystery. Beauty has been piled upon
beauty.
Astronomers of our generation have
been upon the strangest Of adven-
lures. OF this adventure DR.. Russell
has been not only the recorder, but a
leader and prophet. In the United
States he has filled a position quite
similar to that of Sir James Jeans in
England. He is the astronomer and
the interpreter combined.
MANY curious facts stand out in
these pages. knowledge of
which tends to make the heavens more
beautiful and glamorous. For ex-
ample:
Venus is desert whose temperature
is close to the boilin point of water.
Its atmosphere is composed chiefly of
carbon dioxide gas. 1t has no oceans
for there is no water vapor in its cloud
surface. 1t may be very similar to
the earth 1000, 100000 years ago-be-
fore life began.
Why is Mars red? Probably because
most of the oxygen in its atmosphere
has combined with iron in its rocks TO
form red ferric oxides. The rusting of
iron is familiar manifestation of this
process on earth. Mars might be de-
Scribed as a rusty" planet. Such
will be the condition of earth 1000 ,000-
900 years hence.
There actually may be intelligent
life on Mars. 1t could have survived
in Enclosures artiflcially supplied with
oxygen by SOME process of recoverin!
this element from the rocks. There
Is almost certainly plant life there.
Jupiter's atmosphere is composed
partly of droplets of condensed
ammonia. The planet probably is COW
cred with shell of ice. Its tempera-
ture is about -107 centigrade. The
atmospheres of Saturn, Uranus and
Neptune are composed largely of ma
thane, or marsh gas. Pluto is so dis
tant it is impossible to detect any at
mosphere at all.
There are more than 1000 comets
moving helter-skelter about the solar
system. The number may be nearer
100000.
Once, near the beginning Of things,
the day and the month were equal,
each about four hours long. Event
ually, if the present processes con-
tinue, the day will be Al times as long
| as at present, and once more equal
to the month.
Sunlight exerts pressure on the
earth amounting to about a sixteenth
Of an ounce per acre. This is a force
acting contrary to the law of gravity.
For a dust grain less than 100,000th
of an inch in diameter it is greater
than gravity so that such an object
is pushed away from the sun instead
Of drawn toward it.
THE mass of the suns atmosphere
Is only about one 200,000th the
mass Of the earth. It is only one
$4,000, ,000,0G0th part of the suns
whole mass
The sun may be double star With
such instruments as are available at
present it is impossible to determine
whether there may not be one or more
dark bodies, too far away to be il
Illuminated by sunlight, in the void be-
tween the orbit of Pluto and Proxima
Centauri, the nearest star. The mo-
ton of such body would be such that
there would be no gravitational effect.
The shortest day in the solar system
is on the tiny asteroid Eunomia, be-
tween Mars and Jupiter. 1t Is three
hours and two minutes long.
The sun is growing lighter every
year. 1t is melting away. in the form
Of heat and light, at the rate of A.
200 900 tons second. At this rate it
will loose 15,000th of its mass in
l 200, ,o00, 900 years.