PLANET MARS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 23 August 1924, Page 5

PLANET MARS

INTERESTING STATEMENTS BY SCIENTISTS

IX CABLE- PREob ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT

Received Aug. 23, 9.25 a.m. LONDON, Aug. 22. The Daily Mail’s Jungfrau correspondent says that after a month’s concentrated attention on Mars, Professor Schaer is only able to tell a tale of confused shifting shadows and baffling patches and points of light, lhe lpost powerful telescope, magnifying fifteen hundred times, reveals that the clean-cut canals (in which enthusiastic astronomers once lielieved) melt into dim dark patches, the nature of which can only be guessed at. Professor Schaer has seen the white polar cap contract visibly within the lastfew weeks.

NEW YORK, Aug. 22. The Lick Observatory had two clear nights’ view of Mars. Photographic plates, sensitised to different colours, are being exposed, in the hope that through comparison of the colour phases found on Mars its secrets regarding the presence of life and vegetation mav be revealed.

Professor Lampland, of the Lowell University, following tests on Wednesday night, states that lie has discovered that the Martian temperatures range up to 50 degrees centigrade. No heat emanates from the Martian poles, which appear to be well covered with snow until well into the summer. The equatorial regions are warmer than those towards the poles. These conditions were disclosed by using specially designed instruments." They conflict with those obtained by matehmatical calculations,'and suggest that the mean temperature, instead of being below freezing point, is nrobablv much above —Sydney Sun Cable STATEMENT FROM LOVELL OBSERVATORY. •(Received Aug. 23, 10.30 a.m.) VANCOUVER, Aug. 22. A message from Flagstaff (Arizona) reports that a formal statement issued from the Lowell Observatory says: “Many of the observed phenomena of Mars are similar to those one would expect to see in corresponding seasonal activities on the different parts of our own planet, if i viewed from the same space as we observe Mars. The average temperature of Mars is about 48 deg. Fahrenheit. Such a figure seems to, be in reasonable accord with the observed phenomena. The morning side of the planet is at a lower temperature than the afternoon side, which has been longer exposed to the sun’s rays. The dark regions show higher temperature readings than the light ones, and the gradual rise in temperature recorded on the surface of the Southern Hemisphere, where the summer is now advancing. Extenstee visual and photographic observations' revealed interesting and extensive cloud.phenomena, the melting of the South Polar caps and widespread changes in the Martian surface, features which may be seasonal or otherwise.” WASHINGTON, Aug. 22. Powerful radio stations, both army and navy, will stand by on Monday to listen in for possible signals from Mars. —Reuter. UNREWARDED VIGIL. - SYDNEY, Aug. 22. Astronomers were disappointed in their hopes of having a clear view of Mars at close, quarters. The weather was too cloudy for a good view, and the observatory staff report that nothing of note rewarded their vigil. IS THERE LIFE ON MARS? (Contributed.) To-night (23rd inst.). Mars will be at its nearest to the earth since about 150 years, and it will not be as near again in the life of anyone now living, it being Well into the twenty-first century before it is again as close. Its distance to-night, or rather, in the early hours of the following morning, is 34,600,000 miles. By Sunday night (24th inst.) it will be distant several thousands of miles further, though for several weeks it will appeal" very bright. In Friday night’s Star appears a statement from the Lowell Observatory oP dark belts being seen near the equator of Mars, which have appreciably increased during the last fenweeks. These are the same markings referred to in the article on Mars in Wednesday’s Star. The writer referred to the markings as being like dark equatorial cloud belts. Viewed at closer ‘range and iu clearer atmosphere in Mr. P. O’Dea’s twelve-inch reflector at Hawera, the markings are plainly seen to be dark blue or dark green-, and certainly suggest a form of vegetation. Other Hawera- observers—Mr. K. Gawitli and Mr. G. M. Townsend —also report similar views. The newspaper report from the Lowell observatory refers to the markings as “Mare ■Sirenum” and “Mare Cimmeriiim,” but this is evidently a mistake; these seas are not in this region The present phenomenon is unique. The present writer has gone through all the fine drawings in Pcrcival Lowell’s standard work on “Mars,” but nowhere 7s there a drawing similar to the present phenomenon. It is plain the melting snows from the north pole have in some way reached the equatorial regions, hence the remarkable outburst of vegetational growth there. That the waters from the melting snows could so soon reach the equator certainly gives one the impression of intelligence controlling the course of the waters. Lowell considered that the water was conveyed by the canals, and the present phenomenon strongly strengthens his view. Of course this does not mean that such intelligent beings are like us human beings. If Lowell’s theory is correct, then it would appear they "are (or have been) a much more highly developed race than we humans. As Lowell warns us in his concluding remarks in his work “Mars," still the finest work on tlie subject: “To talk of Martian beings is not to mean Martian ‘men.’ 'Gist as the probabilities point to the one, so do they point away from the other. Even mi this earth man is of the nature of an accident. He- is the survival of by no means the highest physical organism. -.He is not even a high fo rm ol mammal. Mind has been bis making. For aught we can see*, some other animal might just as well have popped into bis place early in the race and been now the dominant creature of this earth. Under different physical conditions he would have been certain to do so. Amid the surroundings that exist on Mars, surroundings mo different from our own, uo mav be practically sure other organisms have been evolved of which we have no cognisance For answers to such problems wo must look Lo the, future. ‘.That Mars seems to be inhabited is not tLo last, but tlie first, word on the subject. More important than the mere fact of the existence of living beings there, is the question of what- they may be like. Whether we ourselves

shall live to learn this cannot, of course, be foretold. One thing, however, we can do, and that speedily; look at things from a standpoint raised above our local point of view; free our minds from the shackles that of necessity tether our bodies; recognise tlie possibility of others in the same light that we do the certainty of ourseives. That we poor humans are the sum and substance of the capabilities of the cosmos is something so preposterous asHw be really comic. We pride ourselves upon being men of the world, forgetting that this is but objectionable singularity, unless we are at the same time men of more worlds than one. For after all we are but a link in a chain. Man is merely the earth’s highest production to date. That he in any sense gauges the possibilities of the universe is ridiculous. Ho does not even gauge those of this planet. He has "been steadily bettering from an immemorial past, and will apparently continue to improve through an incalculable future If astronomy teaches anything it teaches that, man is but a detail in the evolution of the universe, and that rosemblant though diverse details are to be expected in the host of planetary orbs in the universe. Man learns that though lie will probably never find his double anywhere, he is destined to discover many cousins scattered through space.’’ r J’he Professor Todd mentioned in the New ) orlc cable as asking all radios to “listen-in” for Martian signals is the same scientist who protected the immense telescope in a South" American mine, a project which had lo be abandoned.