LIFE IN THE MOON.

Otago Witness, Issue 2784, 24 July 1907, Page 79

LIFE IN THE MOON.

ASTOUNDING DISCOVERIES. The old idea thai the moon is a completely lifeless, body has been upset Professor W. EL Pickerings the famous astronomer of Harvard University,, and Professor P. W. Very, an equally distingoisfaed French, astronomer, have both arrived at the conclusion, that there is life on. the moon. Professor Kckering nas found: evidences of activity in volcanic cratere, hitherto regarded as extinct, of ice and hoar frost, and even of vegetation. If snow and ice occur on the moon there most be an. atmosphere. Hitherto this has been, regarded as absent, because there is no refraction of light. If the moon had an. atmosphere it ought to refract th«- rays, of a star passing behind 1 the moon,* just as the stem, of a> spoon seems bent in a glass of water. But no such refraction, occurs. In spite of this, Professor Pickering finds from photographs that there is a very thin lunar atmosphere. As to vegetation, Professor Pickering has. observed spsts which appear after sunrise, darken rapidly towards noon, and fade away at sunset. They are not shadows* and the observer, therefore,, considers them indisputable proof of lunar* vegetation. The terrible cold of the moon, would! be no disproof of tfifs* for many bacteria cannot be MQed by t>he lowest temperature which science can produce. The snrfaee of the moon is certainly barren, eyea if there be traces of vegetation. Ifc is. covered mtit volcanic craters,. 1,000,030 in number, according to Professor Ritchey, of the Yerke* Observatory. Professor Pickering shows that the crater known as "Linne"" was described in the eighteenth century as "a very email spot.'' ; that it was later measured as four miles in diameter j that it was never recorded as having tbe same size twice ; that it once disappeared altogether, and that it is, now three-quartera. of a mile wide. Similarly, the crater "Plato" has frequently changed in siae-, showing that these volcanoes are still active. Professor F. W. Very, of Paris, has discovered very convincing- evidences of life on the iroon (writes the New York American). This body, it appears, is not the abode of eternal cold, as hitherto supposed. Over half its surface — the face which it turns towards the sun — its temperature exceeds the boiling- point of water. Indeed, says Professor Very, the temperature of the illuminated sidie of the mcon is something like 250deg Fahrenheit — sufficiently high, that is to say, to frizzle- up andi destroy any forms of life such as we know on earth, whether animal or vegetable.

Nevertheless, declares the French savant, there may be*

— People on the Moon — who, to guard themselves* against the extraordinary temperature to* which, they would otherwise be exposed, d^ell in th* depths of the lunar mountains — in. caverns

originally formed by huge bahbfee q£ volcanic gases. These people of the moon, it is imagined, must pussuft existence under conditions such as would appear to us very remarkable, to- say the least. Professor. Very does, net admit that the. moon possesses an atmosphere, but points out that life could! be sustained without this, a& is evidenced by the anaerobic bacteria. The moan people must have very slaw vrfcal processes, perhaps lik* those of the lowest living creatures known, on eaxth r but this wotnd! not preclude the evolution of, high intelHgence among them. The moon: people are probably slow-moving subterranean, passionless creature*, withou* eyes, ears, and senses like ours, but possessed of strong, well-balanced minds,, deriving their nutriment from, fungi *hicb grow without air <ox sunlight, and obtamia% from chemical sources a. modified form of light perceptible- hy the «nhoie body. Such people would he a highly developed race of perpetual troglodytes, or cave-dwellers. There may be vast motionless seas beneath the moon's surface* ;• great deposdte of useful minerals, andJ^t is likely that the reptilian form of animal life flourishes there.

Strange to say, the conditions of life on fins moon, as now conjectured by astronomers, are very similar to those ascribed; to an imaginary race inhabiting the interior of the earth by Mr John Uri Lloyd in has remarkable work, "Etidorhpa." It should be realised that we who d-weJI on the earth walk about on the bottom of an ocean of gases. This ocean of gases, (among which oxygen and nitrogen are chief) is about 125 miles in, depth. What its mass amounts to is best expresssd' by stating that if condensed to a liquid it would form a fluid envelope for the globe 33ft thick. Now this gaseous envelope of the earth, which «re call the atmosphere, is a non-conductor of heat — that is fo say, it serves admirably to prevent the radiation of warmth from the crust of tne globe, and at the same time interferes with the free passage of the heat rays sent by the sun toward! the earth. If the atmosphere were suddenly removed we should be burned to a frizzle by the sun ia the daytime and frozen by inconceivable cold during the night. Exactly this way it ia on the moon — assuming that it has no atmosphere. When it is- daytime on the lunar orb the heart runs n£ to

250deg- Tfehxenfoeit • at night \i runs down to something like 263d>eg below zero! Obviously we could Tiot survive under such, conditions j but, as Profefssor Very,suggests, there may be human-like? ctsatures who can, through a, Gpeeial adaptation to their peculiar environment. ' '' "■ It must be remembered', for one thino-, that ! — The Lunar Day and the Lunar I Night— ' are- quite different from oura on the earth. A day on the- moon is 14 of our days in length, and a night on the moon, of course, is of equal duration. From, the earth we, are able, with the naked eye, to- see the progress of a. lunar day — four weeks being required for the sunshine to move" around the satellite. To us the moon always shows {he same face-. When, the- sun is shining full upon, that face we say that the jßoon is foIL It means that it is . daytime on the side of the moon toward ' the earth. Necessarily it must be might on the side turned away from us. As the moon wanes from our point d view to a slender crescent night- spreads, over the face of the orb visi&le ta us, and it is day, of course, on the. other side. The moon was originally part, of the earthy but at a very ancient epoch, when, the earth was still in a molten and plastic condition,, fchia lunar «ri> was. torn bodily away and cast out into space, , to thenceforward about our globs as a aatellite. The scax left by this violent rupture is still visible on the mother planet. We recognise it in the huge basin now filled by the waters of the Pacdfie Ocean. Being.' so- much, smaller than the earth, the moon cooled much more rapidly, and: conee- i quently, in a planetary &eo3e, ;t; t I went through the stage of young planetbood, middle life, and old age> correspondingly faster. Thus, while the earth may be said to be in its middle ' age, the moon has. ssaehed a, eenile condition, and has even, for reasons as yet. unknown,. ?ost the atmosphere which once upon- a time in all probability it possessed. It is not to be supposed that the moon , lost its. atmosphere all at ones Presumj ably: toe. gaseous envelope it originally possessed disappeared very gradually, in> tfie course of ages — dissipated, perhaps, into the empty void of space. If so, any human-like creatures that dwelt on the lunar orb may have gradnally accustomed themselves, to the progressively altering: conditions, eventually finding in the depths' of _ the mountains places of refuge where (as is ordinarily the case in such caverns on the earth) there was no variation of temperature from night to. day, and where on this account they would be safe from both heat and cold. The surface of the moon as viewed from j the earth presents very 6trange charact eristice — peculiarities, that is to say, not paralleled by any geographical features on the earth. All over the face that is turned towards us it is pitted with saucer-shaped depressions. Some of the largest of these saiucers are from 30' to 50 miles in diameter, and have the aspect , of immense circular amphitheatres — that is to say, circular plains surrounded by rings of lofty and precipitous mountains. The elevation of these mountains has been accurately measured by the shadows they throw ; whence it is known that the loftiest of them are as much as four mites high. All sorts of guesses have been ventured in regard to the cause of these remarkable formations, but noxt» of them seems very plausible. But it is quite evident that during the earner ages the moon must, have been the scene of —Most Terrific Volcanic Convulsions. — Incidentally to* these convulsions, Prof«»or Very thinks, imramersble caverns , must have bees formed in the depth of ; the mountains' By bu-bbfea of volcanic | gaaes, and in soeh recesses, (suggesting; i a lateness to the fabled cave of Eor) j millions, of hnman-like beings might findroom to- dwell. j Furthermore, people living oadier such j conditions, on the- rooo» would not be ; wholly confined to the retreats, dsscrifced 1 . j Twenty-eight of o*ar days- being required i for the paiSßing of a lunar day and night, early morning on the moos wonld extend' . over some days, and late afternoon likewise-; 6o that twice a month for a con- , siderable length of time the cavedwellera would, be able to vesture forth into- the open r taking advantage of the I moderate temperature/ that would reign I while the siun was rising or setting. A j civilisation, developed under such condit ions would have its eccentricities, of" course, from our point of view. We ' might not like the notion, of living ia ' cities built in the hollow «i mountains ; yet to the moon folk, such a situation , might appear entirely normal and even • highly enjoyable, with electricity or some ; other means of lighting. A* fop the food pvobSfm, there may be various way* of solving it. The hnmenee caverns on the moon must' be very favourable to the growth of the mushroom family. These plants are exceedingly nourishing, and may take the place of aH food. If the crust of the moon be honeycombed with ! caverns, may it not be possible, Professor I Very suggests, that the oceans which once j flowed on the surface of the satellite j have been absorbed,, and that considerable bodies of water are to be found in the depths of the mountains, contributing not only drink, bait also fishes and other aquatic creatures suitable for food? Geologists are inclined to think that i there may be still a good deal of volcanic heat beneath the crust of the moon. If i ■ so, it might be utilised for the purpose > i of warming the cities of the cavern- i j dWllers. Or, if not, it is at least eon- ] , ceivable that they may have developed ; 1 some method of storing for their own pur- , po&es, whether for fuel or power, the tremendous heat furnished by the sun's . rays during the lunar day. Whatever sort of civilisation may exist on the moon it must, of course, be .very different from any we know ; and the (lunar folk are likely to be familiar with' numeroius inventions and discoveries as yet unthought of by ourselves. The people, of

the moon have a moon of their own, which, is the planet on which we ourselves dwell. From tha view-point of a lunar . cave-dweller the earth is a very magnhioeni moon— looking about 60 times as* big as the luiiar orb does, to us. It gives,- too, about '60 times as much fight ; and thus night on the moon is often, quite as brilliant-- as a cloudy day on gut planet — the- amount of illumination received depending, .-of 'cottree, upon the changing phases through which, like the moon, the earth most go as seen fey ' the men m the moon.-