STILL OBSCURE

Northern Advocate, 23 August 1924, Page 5

STILL OBSCURE

SOME MARTIAN PHASES.

SHITTING SHADOWS,

ASTRONOMERS BAFFLED.

(Received 10.50 a.m.) LONDON, August 22

The "Daily Mail's" Jnngfrou correspondent says that after months of concentrated attention on Mars Professor Schaer is only able to tell ti tale of confused, shifting shadows and baffling patches and point? of lignt. A very powerful telescope, magnifying .1500 times, reveals that the clear-cut "canals" in which enthusiastic astronomers once believed melt into a, dim arc of patches, the nature of which can only be guessed at. Professor Schaer hus seen the white polar crip contract visibly within the last 'few weeks. — Sum.

MEAN TEMPERATURE

ABOVE FREEZING POINT

(Received 11 a.m.)

NEW YORK, August 21,

Lick Observatory had two clear nights' view of Mars. Photographic plates sensitised to different colours are being exposed in the hope that through «'i comparison of the colour phases found on Mars its secrets tcgarding the presence of life and vegetation may be revealed.

Professor Lampland, of Lowell "University, following upon tests made on Wednesday night, states that he has discovered that the Martian temperature ranges up to 50 degrees centigrade. No heat emanates from the Martian poles, which appear to be covered with snow until well into the summer. The equatorial regions are wanner than those toward the poles. These conditions were disclosed by using specially designed instruments. They conflict with those obtained by mathematical calculations and suggest that the mean temperature, instead of being below freezing point, is probably much above. —Sun.

.SEASONAL

ACTIVITIES

SIMILAR TO THE EARTH

(Received Noon.) VANCOUVER, August 22. A message from Flagstaff, Arizona, reports that a formal statement issued from Lowell Observatory says: "Many of the observed phenomena of Mars are similar to those one would expect to see in corresponding seasonal activities on different parts of our own planet if viewed from space as we observe Mars. The average temperature on Mars is about 48 degrees Fahrenheit. Such a figure seems to be in reasonable accord with observed phenomena. The morning side of the planet is at 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 a gradual rise in temperature is recorded on the surface of the southern hemisphere, where summer is now advancing. Extensive visual and photographic observations have Tβvealed interesting extensive cloud phenomena, melting of the south polar caps and widespread changes in the Martian surface, features whieh may be seasonal or otherwise."