ARE YOU THERE, MARS?”

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1514, 7 March 1901, Page 59

ARE YOU THERE, MARS?”

A SIGNALLING FLAG AS BIG AS IRELAND WANTED. EVOLUTION OF THE MOON. In the course of a, lecture at the Royal Institution, Sir Robert Ball referred to Mr Nikola Tesla’s statement that he had received a message from Mars. Whether there were beingsi in Mars capable of sending intelligent messages, Sir Robert could, not say, but he gave some idea of the kind of signal that we should have to send in order that it might be observed by the Martians. A flag as big as Ireland would be required, and a gigantic flag-staff would be necesary, and even then the signal would only be visible as a tiny S'peck. As to the nature of the message the Martians would 1 be likely to send to us, he did not think it would be anything grandiose; it would most likely take the form of the three simple words, “Are you there Sir Robert then dealt with the subject of his lecture, “Th© Evolution of the Moon.” ' Years ago, he said, the earth and the moon formed part of the same original fire-cloud or nebula. A portion became detached and gradually receded from the other portion, and thus the moon and the earth came into being. The moon had cooled much mor© rapidly than th© earth, being a smaller body, and its prust was now quite hard. There were no oceans on the moon, and its internal heat had all radiated into space. The moon always turned' the same face towards the earth, and this was accounted for by -the fact that the time taken for the rotation of the earth on its own axis was equal to that of its revolution round the earth. The distance of th© moon from the earth was gradually increasing. It was now 240,000 miles distant. The tides were caused by the moon, and by acting as a drag on the rotation of the earth the tides wer© increasing the length of the day. The change was exceedingly small. In on© thousand years it would only amount to the fraction of a second, yet mathematicians had proved that millions of years ago the earth spun round on its axis much faster, than it does now, and that millions of years hence th© days would be even fifty or sixty times as long as they were now. Once upon a time the earth produced tides on the moon, but there was. now no water on the moon’s surface.