MYSTIC SOUNDS

Northern Advocate, 25 August 1924, Page 5

MYSTIC SOUNDS

j MARS MESSAGE DEDUCED. I CELESTIAL MORSE CODE. I ! A SCEPTICAL PROFESSOR. (Received 11.45 a.m.) j . LONDON, August 24. The editor of the publication ''Popular Wireless," accompanied by Professor Low, engaged in listening-in for a message from Mars. He reports that they heard curious noises. Harsh, long dots occurred in groups at irregular intervals. He is convinced that they were not of earthly origin. The set was tuned well over 30,000 metres. Professor Low is sceptical and explains that the noises were probably caused by a, mixture of atmospheres hetrodyning between distant stations. —Sun. NEW STARS DISCOVERED. IN MAGELLANIC CLOUD. (Received II.HO a.m.) NEW YORK, August 24. Man} T observations made at Lowell Observatory confirm the opinion that the heat on Mars is sufficient to support organic life as we know it. The southern snow-cap is quite easily seen like a huge snow button. The planet's summer season is just beginning and observations during the next few weeks are expected to afford interesting data. Harvard .vstronomers watching Mars were rewarded by the discovery of new stars ill the Magellanic. Cloud. They state that the stars are of greater brilliancy than any others seen in that group. They are three or four times larger than the famed giants Betelgeuse and Antares. It is estimated that there are more than half a million stara that are at least 100 times as luminous as our sun in a small Magellanic Cloud which is receding from tho Milky Way at a velocity of 100 miles per second. —Sun.

CHANGING TINTS. SUPPOSED VEGETATION. (Received 12.40 p.m.) VANCOUVER, August 23. A message from Flagstaff, Arizona, states that the presence of steam or vapour arising from polar caps and the appearance of clouds on the surface, establishing the fact that atmosphere encircles Mars, are outstanding developments of the study of the planet at Lowell Observatory during the present observations.

Dr. Slipher, Observatory Director, states that the planet's surface is divided into red and blue-green regions. The red portions have the same appearance as the earth's desert regions and are little affected by the changing seasons, but the blue-green districts, which some astronomers contend to be seas, show a tint that changes at different seasons. The present theory is that the blue-green regions are vegetation, for they fade out later in some sections to a chocolate brown colour. — Reuter. TOTAL FAILURE. RADIO COMMUNICATION. (Received 12.45 p.m.) NEW YORK, August 23. A week's observation of the Martian perihelion in apposition has revealed nothing revolutionary, in as much as observers' opinions continue to be contradictory, similar to 1870, when the debate concerning the characteristics of Mars began. Nevertheless the closer view has afforded enlargement of the meagre knowledge of the planet. Professor Edwin Frost, nt Yorkes

Observatory, Chicago, which has the largest refracting lens in the world, reiterated his belief that animal life in Mars is almost out of the question, but he reasserted that fungi probably exist there.