LIFE ON MARS?

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 110, 11 May 1935, Page 21

LIFE ON MARS?

.■■ v I—♦ r — THE EXISTS} EVIDENCE

ASTRONOMERS' BELIEFS

Mars,-.pur.meighbour world, is rapidly drawing nearer to the earth and is becoming more and more conspicuous.' ; • , For a century arid a half, ever since the time of Sir William Herschel, the general ...aspect of Mars has been familiar to astronomers^ says a writer m the "Manchester Guardian." The surface is diversified into reddish-ochre and bluish-green = areas, and the preponderance .of the former imparts to theK planet ,Hs striking red colour. In the early days of Martian observation it w^s believed that these blue-green areas-were bodies of water; but for the past quarter of a century there has been-general agreement that they are simply tracts of vegetation— meadowland, moorland,, fenland—for they change colour in accordance with the Martian seasons 'in a way. that oceans could not and only vegetation could , do. As to the reddish-ochre regions, there is general agreement that these are desert lands—analogous to our terrestrial Sahara. But the process of "sterilisation" has proceeded much 'farther on Mars tHan.• on the earth, for Mars is-' a considerably smaller world and correspondingly pldes/■'••■•..-■ -'• ■;■■"■■:• ." i■■ ':' ;■*.•'•■ ' j/;.Nb-;PEKIWANENX' OCEANS. ' There ■ are no permanent bodies of -water on;^the Martian surface—no oceans similar to ours. ■ 'There- are, however, .temporary seas»and marshes resulting from4he melting of the polar snows.' 'H6rschel was the first to drawattention to ' the -existence of two dazzling white • spots at the. Martian Poles,. ;and he rightly surmised that these represent the arctic- and antarctic snbwfieldsof Mars., Their extent is?.at its, maximum in-Jhe winter sea-son;-'in spring they contract; and in summer they shrink into insignificance and. occasionally disappear altogether. Broad .blueibafidS; are almost invariably; seen surrounding these melting caps, arid these have been called the--polar s^as— temporary bodies of water'form ed by theimeltingsnojvs. *...,; >

Mars, jthen, is unlike, the earth in the absence,of permanent oceans arid, it, may/be added, in the absence also of mountains higher than 1500 feet There is a third point of dissimilarity. The;reddish-ochre areas.and the bluishgreen areas also, .though, in lesser degree; are distinguished by a curious net 'work of lines. called' "canals." Theso have been familiar to astronomers for over x flf i% years arid have occasioned keen controversy.: Professor. Lowell, 'who. studied,.Mars more closely than any;-other, astronomer of his time, believed the canals to be strips of fertile ground on-., either, side of waterways, much too small, to be seen by us terrestrial l.dwellers.; •In; this he is generally thought .tq-have been correct.. He further believed .that the canal system, with-its strange geometrical regularity wassail -index to the existence of in: telligent life;: ,Mars, it is commonly assumed, is comparatively; .scarce of water,1 and -the inhabitants, Lowell maintained^ "). were; driven by , sheer necessity: to. construct a vast, planetwide system of irrigation. ' <• A "COOL, BRIGHT CLIMATE." ■Lowell's \ theory^ \lias neither been proved nor disproved, though alternatives .have .been proposed. Since his death jih s 1916,;' however, several important facts have :been- ascertained which have strengthened, if hot his particular'theory, at least its , basic assumption—namely, that life of a typa riqt-yery unlike'our own is possible,in, MSs:"j/Lowell; computed theinean tenr peratjjr'e',,6f thfe 'Martian 'surface -as1 48Se'g' F.farid^s conclusions were conifirmed * eight years after, his death by the1 radiometric measures carried>6ut at the Lowell \ and' Mount ■ Wilson Observatories: 'The Lowell astronomers found -that ■ "the temperature•'of 'the ■brightly-illumhiated surface: of Mars is not unlikethat of a cool, bright day on\the earth," with temperatures rang; ing. from r4sdeg. to' 65deg.fP:; and the; Mount Wilson results.were not widely divergeht. The comparative clearness of, the Martian sky-by day allows the siirface to. bei heated*up.and the cloudiness -*6f-the sky :by night: prevents .the, wholesale escape of the heat received durmg tfie" day: v■■-■= '.:...■•< ; : : ; The ■: photographic . work of ,; Dr. Wright at the Lick Observatory, indir, cates: that the^ atmosphere is denser and more:extehsive than was'formerly believed. . Professor ' Pickering maintains that the atmospheres of Maxs and the'earth, despite differences in density, are: so similar.-that "human life, if transported to Mars, might exist and flourish thereJ" In the present state of .-our knowledge we are justifiedin sayingr that Mars .is habitable by forms of life hot very unlike those with which we are familiar. .J.-..■'. \ ,