VENUS A WORLD

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 December 1934, Page 11

VENUS A WORLD

‘MAY REPEAT EARTH’S HISTORY.’ x he planet Venus .repeating the history of the earth was envisaged by Sir James Jeans in a broadcast talk recently. Venus, said Sir James, had an atmosphere, which he described as •jatner steamy.” It was near enough to the sun to receive almost double the amount of radiation the earth re. ceived, and was completely enveloped in thick clouds so dense that we could not see any of the permanent surface beneath. As no oxygen could be detected on Venus it seemed likely that there was no vegetation on the planet and possibly no life like the higher kinds that existed on the earth. “If we go far back enough in time we come back to when the earth was substantially hotter than now, but with no vegetation on its surface. Perhaps Venus is rather like what the earth was then. And if the Venus of to-day is like the earth was in tho.se far-past days perhaps the Venus of the future may be like the world of to-day. “In brief, Venus may repeat the history of the world. First vegetation and then higher forms of life may appear in due course on Venus as they have already done on earth. On the other hand, it may be that some strange and rare accident was responsible for the appearance of life on the earth —an accident such as ,ill not occur twice in the history of our solar system, and perhaps not even in the history of the whole universe.”