LIGHT SIGNALS TO MARS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 108, 3 November 1923, Page 16

LIGHT SIGNALS TO MARS

A.FANTASTIC THEOEY.

Is it possible to send messages to Mars -assuming there are Martians to receive and understand them? An astronomer who has been keeping Mars under observation for a year has been suggesting possible methods of signalling from Sanpf- t\,Und^ the eviction that the planet is the atiode of. intelligent life. , n ™"»le!y (writes an astronomical conesponden of the "Daily Chronicle"), V^° n6 w me*0d' suggested as the most all rZ ™7k¥ °£ "Sht signals-is of vLtihl meth? d.s. Proposed the most imposßible; and if there were any chance when "fi S- B U ytwdi certainly not be when Mars is nearest the earth MarsTi at fir-? si Zhi Ee«m that. as lilht I magnificent an object in the whiii ' y Whe" {th ««««*■«» earth, which is seven, times bigger, ought then the n ,v\f Ui Ch"?°f e sPlendid spectacle in •dlv *? k l Oi the M«ttuu; But actuv; L . V"" 6 OUl> P!anet >3 quite inTtt H tee Martians, for Ll , br°ad delight on the Martian hemisphere turned earthwards, and ait earth* ? MarS c°uld onl/ s*e tfee earth if it were artificially illuminated on every square mile of its surface by a Ught more powerful than sunlight. If ror■ S" Wt to make a W* mirroi to reflect the sunlight, with an area ZX vf 66e? Mars ty means of a very powerful telescope. But these sig-: ?± 7"»W July be possible when Mars, ?T lu m the carth > is aboufc 90 degreei W th\ s™>™* the earth, seenfromMars -a thm crescent, visible for a few minutes before sunrise and after sunset

an eWM gv^ 7™ PoSsibl» *<> construct an electncJiKht, or a mirror, three times the size of Greater London, arid mount it on a huge an 8 parallel to the earth's +f^ the eastward rotation pf the earth? the experiment might be tried next Easter week or later, about Christmas Day, when Mars will be 90 degrees from the sun. but over 100.000000 miles from the earth-three times 3S distant as when it is nearest the earth nest August-and the earth quite invisible to the Martians. .

There is more hope of reaching Man by aeroplane than of getting into communication with its supposed supermen by any method of signalling .which de?or ,f l? nu ? *? C3l?y our Sreetin-s for a .halfpenny 30.miles away would appear bigger' than a terrestrial "spot" of hcrht:2oo» square miles in area would to the Martiapa in a Riant telescope, the smallest light signal they could possibly SB9. . , •