NO LIFE ON STARS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 24 October 1942, Page 5

NO LIFE ON STARS

LACK OF SOLIDITY “No life with which we are acquainted could withstand the enormous pressure which exists on the surface of the stars,” declared Dr A. W. Roberts. Another point that proves the impossibility of human beings, like ourselves, living on the stars, is that their density is far less than the earth. There is no solidity about them. “Man is so constituted both physically and morally that he must have something unyielding beneath his feet He cannot walk on clouds or on vapour, or find a sure foothold on the shores of a misty dreamland. No planet or star, therefore, the density of whose substance is equal to that of air or even water can be the abode of man as we know him. Now, the density of the great majority of the stars is less than that of water; some even are composed of matter “light as air.” Therefore if a man tried to walk on the surface of these gaseous orbs he would as certainly sink into the depths beneath him as a stone would that sought a lodgment on the surface of a placid lake, or an alpine traveller who essayed to step forth on to the rolling sea of cloud that hid from his view the abyss below. The same holds true of three of the planets, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The density of these three planets is less than that of water.” On Saturn, Uranus and Neptune there is nothing but rolling waves of liquid matter. The outer crust of Jupiter must be like mud or treacle. On Mars men could easily live and work. Venus is far more likely to be inhabited than Mars, for it is most like the earth in all respects. As to temperature, the stars can be left out of consideration, for on these the temperature ranges between 100.000 degrees and 1,000,000 degrees! Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are so far from the sun that the chill of space lies round them like a shroud:

“On Mercury the opposite of nearly all this is true. Fierce, scorching sunlight turns the Mertiurian sky into a blinding dome of light: the sun is no longer beneficent and lifegiving, but baleful and terrible in its destructive power. There is no place for man in a world like this. Only on three planels would it be possible to live if we consider the sun's heat alone —namely, Jupiter, Mars and Venus. With regard to temperature Mars and Venus cannot be very different from our own earth. Indeed, on Venus there would be no inhospitable polar regions for ever barred against man’s dominion, while the equatorial realms of the planet would not be more than ten degrees warmer than the average tropical temperature of terrestrial lands.”