Year: 1876

Is Venus InhnbItedI


So far there is nothing in what we have
learned about Venus which does not agree
well with the idea that the planet is world
like our earth, where people like ourselves
might live very comfortably. For 1t would
not matter much to US, probably, If the
year were shortened by four or FIVE
months, and the day by half an hour-sup-
posing always that trees and vegetables
were so made that they could thrive under
the change. In fact, if anyone leaves the
temperate regions 10 visit the tropics, he
has TO undergo greater change. For here
in England (where 1 am writing) and
throughout the United States, the seasons
change from the heat of summer 10 the
cold of winter, and back again 10 the heat
of summer, in twelve months but at the
equator, the greatest heat occurs in spring
aud autumn, or at intervals OF only six
months. So far as the length of the year is
concerned, an American or an Englishman
could very well bear the change TO the
temperate zone of Venus, where the inter-
val between the successive seasons of great
est heat amounts TO seven and half
months.


But when we consider some other points,
we see that Venus, beautiful though she
looks, would not be comfortable home
for us. In The FIRST place, we know that If
we draw nearer TO fire we get moro heat
from it. Now Venus is much nearer to
the sun-the great fire of the solar system
than our earth is. She receives, then,
much more heat from him. In fact, it is
easily calculated that If our earth were set
travelling on the path of Venus, we should
receive almost exactly twice as much heat
from the sun AS we do al present. This
would be unbearable, excapt, perhaps, in
the polar regions; aud even there the sum-
mer, with that tremendous sun above the
horizon all through the twenty four hours,
would be scarcely bearable. Besides, what
a contrast between the hot polar summer
aud The cold polar winter, when for weeks
together The sun would not be seen at all.
Altogether, this earth would be a misera-
BILE home ior us if her path were as close
10 the sun as that of Venus.


We see, then, that either there must he
some peculiarilies about Venus which pre-
vent the sun from heating people there as
he would certainly heat us if our home
we're there, or else the creatures which live
on Venus must he different from ourselves
and the other animal inhabitants of our
earth. Unfortunately, we cannot make
telescopes large enough 10 show us what is
going on upon that planet, and there is no
reason for hoping that such telescopes can
ever be made. What we know, lowever,
about the planets condition does not seem
to show that creatures living there would
be more comfortable than we should be If
the earth were put where Venus is. Just
the contrary, so far as we can judge. You
know that the seasons on our earth are
caused by the fact that she turns on a slant
ed axis. II her axis were upright, there
would be no seasons; If it were more
slauied, the contrast between summer and
winter would he greater. Now Venus has
her axis much more slanted than the
earths, so that her seasons must be very
marked indeed. Thus the heat OF her sum-
mer weather must be even more terrible
than we thought just now.


But there is yet another point to be no.
ticed. You know that on The upper slopes
of lofty mountains, there is snow all the
year round, even in the torrid zone. That
is becaus the air up there is so rare that 1t
does not act like the denser air lower down,
which is a sort of clothing for the earth,
keeping the heat from escaping. Now If
the air of Venus were very rare, some-
thing of the same sort might happen on
that planet. Just as people who live in
torrd zones seek the high mountain slopes
in the hottest seasons of the year, and find
there temperate climate, so the inhabi-
tants Of Venus might find 1t possible to
bear the suns intense heat If the air of the
planet were rare like that above the snow
line in our mountain regions.


But 1t seems that, on the contrary, the
air of Venus is even denser than ours. And
just the kind OF air that keeps tire heat in
most. The air of Venus is, in fact, so
dense and moist that 1t must be very un-
comfortable 10 live in, quite apart from the
intense heat; that is to say, it would be
very uncomfortable for creatures like our
selves.


There cannot be moisture In the air OF a
planet unless there are seas and oceans Oh
the planets surface. No doubt, then, Ve-
nus has her continents and oceans, her is
lands and promontories, and inland seas
and lakes, very much as our earth has.
Then there must be rivers on the land and
currents in the ocean; there must be clouds
and rain, wind and storm, thunder and
lightning, and perhaps snow and hail.
| Whether the planet is an inhabited world
or not, It would be diflcult TO say. Per-
haps II is a world getting ready for use as
a home for living creatures. Some astron-
omers think that the sun is gradually
parting with his heat. If, millions of years
hence, the sun should only give out half as
much heat as now, perhaps Venus would
be as comfortable place to live in as our
earth is now. That may seem to us long
time for planet to wait, but 1t IL not long