IS THERE WATER ON THE MOON.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3484, 6 September 1882, Page 4

IS THERE WATER ON THE MOON.

In a recent communication, Mr Helmuth Dueberg, of Berlin, presents a new theory of the moon, and argues the possibility of its being inhabited on the further side. It is well known that the moon always presents the same face to the earfch. Because this side of the moon is an airless and waterless desert, wo are not justified,. Mr Dueberg thinks, in assuming that the other side is like it. Since the moon does not revolve so as to change the side presented to the earth, and since the attraction of the earth for the moon is very great, the heavier side, if their is any, must be turned this way. Supposing the moon to possess air and water, these lighter and more fluent elements of her composition would of necessity lie on the further side. In the absence of any centrifugal force due to rotation on her own axis, the only centrifugal force acting upon the moon must be that resulting from the moon's motion round the earth. This would tend still more to throw the moon's air and water to tho ' out '-side with respect to the earth. For a practical illustration of the view, Mr Dueberg suggests a ball swinging in a circle by means of a cord. The ball, like the moon, will always turn the same side to the centre of revolution ; and if it be dipped in any liquid, the liquid will be rapidly accumulated on the opposite or outer side. Hence the possibility of water, air, and life on the moon, ai'ound the shores of a central lunar sea, on the side always turned away from us.