STEAM ON THE MOON.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17314, 28 November 1921, Page 10

STEAM ON THE MOON.

I NEW YORK, October 10. In an article appearing in 'Popular Astronomy," describing the results of two years' study of the moon, Professor William Pickering, of Harvard University, challenges tho assumption or astronomers that the moon is dead and that nothing can live on its surface. He declares his conviction that markings are often observed on the face o£ the planet actually representing areas of vegetation. Two crops of this vegetation grow every day on tho moon, according to Professor Pickering, a day on the moon being 14 of our days, during which it is lighted by the sun. In the- craters with which tho surlac* of the moon is studded, says the professor, there is water and a supply or heat, and he has observed steam issuing from them. When the moon emerges from its period of darkness he believes the sun's rays quickly warm up tho surface of the moon and start- mushroomlike growths in the crater fields. An observer is actually able to distinguish patterns growing in the fields. Patches of vegetation, ,ho adds, "shift positions over the surface lika the canals on Mars. In both cases the surface of discoloration has changed its place. "This cannot be due to mineral or inorganic force. Life, therefore, exists on both planets Thus wo find a living world at our very doors, where nfe in some inspects -resembles that on Mara but is utterly unlike anything on oia own planet world."