Evening star., 1936-06-12
JUPITER HURTLES
INTO SPOTLIGHT
Now at Nearest Approach
to Earth-Moon System
Provides Solar Show.
BY THOMAS n. HENRY.

washington's latest sport - the
backyard, star gazing cocktail party.
It's especially popular just now for
several related reasons. First, low in
the southeastern sky just after dark
Is the biggest, brightest star seen for
many O month. Even though a pair
OF good field glasses 1t looks Is big
as the moon.
This star Is Jupiter, biggest OF the
planets, now at its nearest approach
to the earth for tive years. 1t Is
39S, ,000, 900 miles away. Seen either
through telescope or field glasses. 1t
is q remarkable object The face Of
the planet appears to be crossed by
dark bands OF clouds. These form
the upper surface of its atmosphere.
which is about 10 900 miles deep and
Is composed chiefly of two gases
that do not liouefy or solidify at q
temperature,of 400 degrees below zero,
the surface temperature Of the planet.
Occasionally these bands change
their conf1guration rather sharply
a change that can be noticed in q
moderate-siEed telescope.
Ever Present Moon system.
In addition TO the cloud ba nds Is
the ever-present moon system OF
Jupiter that has attracted attention
since It's discovery by Gallileo in 1910.
The planet has q family OF nine
moons. four OF which are seen easily.
be detected only by the largest tele-
scopes in the world. or the four which
can be seen, three ere larger than
the earth's moon and two are larger
than the planet Mercury. The visible
moons move quite rapidly and in q
telescope under favorable conditions
they can be seen to move, II watched
for only q few minutes.
The motion OF these planets around
Jupiter carries them in front and In
back OF the planet, q phenomena that
gives rise TO various kinds of eclipses
and transits that observers here on
earth may watch. Scientifically there
is little TO be learned any more from
these changing moon positions and
ct the Naval Observatory, it was
stated today, no especial attention Is
being given to Jupiter. The move
ments of these moons, however. first
enabled astronomers to determine the
speed Of light.
Such backyard cocktail parties, OF
course, are good places for high-bro
fantasies. Could there be any life
on Jupiter and If so what would the
living things look like? What lies
under the thick blanket OF clouds?
Second In Si.e TO Sun.
In the first place. Jupiter is by far
the largest object in the solar system
outside the sun itself. Any living
things there would necessarily be
giants OF enormous strength or they
couldn't move-so great would be the
gravitstionsl force pulling them
against the surface In the second
place. the planet is so far away from
the sun that 1t receives almost no
solar radiation and what little there
is could hardly be expected TO pene-
trate the 10000 miles OF atmosphere.
The planet has been pictured as COM
pletely surrounded with q shell of Ice
hundreds of miles thick. There Is
some evidence that 1t may have some
slight internal heat, but this is open
to question. Compared TO its icy sur
face Mars would be q comparatively
hospits bic abode for life and it gen.
orally is agreed that about the only
living things that could survive on
Mars. outside OF vegetation, would be
something physiologically like
horned toad-although not necessarily
similar in appearance or intelligence.
There is no way of determining the
makeup OF Jupiter's atmosphere un-
der the deep layers OF methane and
ammonia. Maybe there is more
methane and ammonia. and it would
be hard to conceive OF living things
existing in such an atmosphere.
The only star which ever exceeds
the brightness OF Jupiter in its pres
ent position is the earths nearest
neiehbor Venus when fsvorably 10
Gated.
Last week it was the full June
moon that proved the inspiration OF
the stsr-ganng cocktail parties. The
mountains and valleys of the moon
were interesting-but the earth's
satellite made back yards as bright
as day. Jupiter's light Is negligible
. fact which gives 1t q certain sd
vantage under certain conditions.