THE PROBLEM OF MARS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 74, 29 March 1933, Page 6

THE PROBLEM OF MARS.

Astronomers will for some weeks be busy seeking to solve the mystery of the habit-ability of Mars (said the London "Observer" in February, referring to the fact that on March 1 Mars would be in opposition), but their chances of success would be far greater had the opposition happened six months later, as when that is the case Mars is nearly 30,000,000 miles nearer. But such near approaches occur only about six times in a century. The last happened in 1924, and the next is not due until 1939. At present astronomers generally are sceptical as to the objective reality of those "canals," which the late Professor and other American astronomers claimed to have photographed. M. Antoniadi, who, with the splendid 33in refractor at Meudon Observatory, has carefully observed and photographed Mars at every opposition since 1909, and has recently published the result*? of his observations, together with an analysis of the work of other astronomers for the last 300 years, is convinced that the canals are optical illusions, and actually isolated features which merely appear to be continuous straight lines. And the "snow-caps" at the Poles, which, melting in summer, are supposed to supply the temperate regions with water by means of the canal system, are more likely to be carbon-dioxide than frozen water, or else atmospheric phenomena high above the planet's surface. M. Antoniadi is not only famous as a planetary draughtsman, but be has at his command one of the finest telescopes in existence. One day, perhaps, some more ingenious instruments may be invented with wh-"ch the problem of Mars may be definitely solved, but at present the consensus of expert opinion concerning the Martians and their marvellous skill as makers of canals beside which the earth's greatest rivers are mere rivulets, is that such a theory is contrary to all the observational data so fa" obtained.