LIFE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 31 May 1930, Page 4

LIFE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM

Discussing the discovery of the new planet—which Dr. J. Jackson, of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, considers may be only a comet—Mr A. Wyatt Til by says, in the "Saturday Review": "Life in any sense known or conceivable is impossible on this distant world. Life depends on light, heat, water and air; and the new addition to the solar system receives little more light from the sun than we obtain from Sirius; its brightest daylight can be no more brilliant than our clear winter nights without a moon. The sun . being between( fivo and six light-hours distant, heat is unknown; if water exists, it must always be frozen as solid as rock, and the,highest surface temperature must bo far below that at which Sir J. Rose has demonstrated that life on earth ceases to exist. In these conditions it is of little practical importance whether the new planet has an atmosphere or not. The fact is one more reminder of the extreme insignificance of life in our solar system. Of satellites, life certainly exists on one, possibly two or three, not more; the conditions in which' life of any sort can begin, let alone persist, seem completely impossible outside Venus, Earth arid Mars." , •