Is the Moon Dead?

Te Aroha News, Volume XXXIX, Issue 6171, 12 January 1922, Page 4

Is the Moon Dead?

French Scientist’s Theory The theories of Professor Pickering, of Harvard University, as to the possibility of some sort of vegetable life existing on the moon are rejected by M le Morvan, the astronomer at the Paris Observatory. According to Professor Pickering, at the beginning of the lunar day immense zones of vegetation spring up quickly in the craters. M. le Morvan replies that this phenomenon is really a chromatic display. He says-he has observed immense zones of green, but he believe 0 that they are due to the rays of the sun refracted from myriads of pointed crystals and semi-transparent rocks, which abound in the volcanic regions. He argues that the green is seen only when the rays of the sun strike the moon at a very acute angle, and that when the sun rises in the lunrr day the color disappears. Moreover, the green zones sprpad over such tremendous areas in only a few minutes that vegetation wculd not have time to develop and die so quickly. The “ blizzards, volcanic eruptions, frogs and clouds,’’ reported by Professor Pickering, are put down by M. le Morvan, to agitation in the world’s atmosphere. According to observations mane from Paris, “ the moon is dead.”