Evening star., 1951-01-08
Dust, Not Water, Makes
Deep Oceans on Moon
British Astronomer Gives
New ExpIonotion of Cruters
By Thomos R. Henry

By Thomas R. Henry
There actually are oceans" on the
moon.
They are great basins filled with dust
particles averaging less than 25,000th
of an inch in diameter to depths of as
much as five miles. In one of them an
object would sink as in water.
This probability was brought out by
the British astronomer, DR.. F. Hoyle, in
recent conference on the atmospheres Of
planets held in London and reported by
Nature, official journal of the British As
sociation for the Advancement Of Sci
ence.
A conspicuous feature of the moons
surface as seen through a telescope is
the pock- marking of deep craters, some
Of them many miles in radius and prob
ably thousands of feet deep. The gener-
ally accepted theory is that these are
due to bombardment of the satellites
surface by meteorites-very likely in the
distant past. The earth probably would
be similarly pock-marked were it not for
the thick cushion of air in which falling
stars burn to ashes before reaching the
planets surface. The moon has no such
cushion.
Statistical Anomaly Noted.
But. it was pointed out at the British
conference, if this were true the craters
would be distributed evenly over the
moons surface. Actually there are great
level areas which contain no pock- marks.
shooting stars" hardly could have been
expected to have avoided them. They
look like great oceans would be expected
10 look. On maps of the moon up to
about SO years ago, before there was
much understanding of lunar conditions.
they were designated as seas"
There. OF course, is no water on the
moon These lunar seas cannot be
oceans comparable to terrestrial oceans.
But according to the latest theories they
may amount to something quite similar,
The thesis advanced is that in the Begin
nlng there were great depressions on the
satellites surface quite comparable to
the earth's ocean basins. These were
bombarded, presumably. by meteors as
intensely as the rest of the moon.
But, 1t Is suggested, an extremely fine
powder constantly is being produced on
the moon by the rapid changes Of tenn
perature. These particles would tend to
now towards the great basins, filling
them In the course of a few billion years.
The result would be the great dust
oceans.
new race Of dwarf house mice. only
about half the size of normal mice at
1ull maturity has been reported to the
American Genetic Association.
They were obtained from a selected
stock Of smaller than normal mice in
the Institute Of Animal Genetics at the
University of Edinburgh, according to
the report of DR.. j. w. B. King. The
segregation apparently succeeded in iso-
latlng hitherto unsuspected hereditary
deficiency. This would not have ap-
peared If the animals had continued to
mix with the general mouse population.
Transmission Of the dwarfism seems
to follow the normal rule of heredity.
Females OF the dwarf line generally
prove sterile but the males are capable
OF transmitting the line through normal
females. Thus eventually it may be pos
sible for this new breed of animals to
become well-established on earth.
Third Dwarfism Reported.
This is the third hereditary dwarfism
to be reported in the mouse The first.
however. proved to be due to deficiency
in secretion Of one Of the pituitary gland
hormones and the second appeared on
descendants Of mice treated for many
generations with Observation-Disclosures
one Of the most potent Of the cancer
producing agents.
The present mutation appears to have
occurred naturally and the dwarfs can
not be considered in any sense deficient
animals. The growth Of the pygmies
follows a very similar course to that Of
normals. though at a greatly reduced
rate. 1t does not appear to depend on
nutritional status.
The new race has short ears, short
feet and long tails relative to normal
mice. The coat is about as long as that
of the normals, with the result that it
seems much longer. The dwarfs are
fussy about their appearance, Dr. King
reports, and always keep we'll groomed.
They have peculiarly streamlined ap-
pearance. They are at least as active
as the normals and have exceptionally
sharp teeth which frequently enable
them to escape by enlarging the ventila-
tion holes in the aluminium cages In
which they are kept.