IS 7 HERE LIFE ON THE PLANETS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 206, 3 September 1935, Page 10

IS 7 HERE LIFE ON THE PLANETS

May Be on Mars and Venus

i \ man’s rea<h >huuld exceed his grn>|’ < )r, w hat s a heu\ en lor. Robert Browning. KXI.W nil] DISTANT ,8 TABS, walked among them in legends, imagined wlmt star-people looked like, and dreamed uf spanning unfathomable space long before Galileo built his first ‘‘optick tube’’ from two pieces ol spectacle glass and a leaden cylinder, says Mr Herbert B. Nicholls in the • ‘ Bost on Mon i tor. ’ ’ To-day with modern ’scopes and air craft, imagination reaches farther ami ingcnuiti' refuses to accept 63,U1)0 feci as the limit of soaring when a few mile, farther may mean freedom to travel ii space at will. The possibility of lit* elsewhere in the universe than on eart. has alwavs been intriguing—thrilling Of course the stars are not occupied, for they are fiery suns, but what about the planets or “travelling stars”? Men of adventure and broad vision are always in the lead when new wurid> are discovered. They search the forgotten corners of the earth, hoping to stumble across a “Dinosaur Valley” or a “Plateau of Flying Reptiles,” a living geologic past; dream of piloting planes over polar regions; put magnets, wires ami iron together tu produce electric power and heat; or use a bit ut coal dust or its lar tu build a thousand more hues than the rainbow carries. On the practical mechanics of building interplanetary ships to bridge the gulf between earth and the planets, many have tried interplanetary projectiles which never havo succeeded, while others look to a time when their rockets will not only bridge continents but connect with planets as well. However, the problems involved seem far beyond any aceidential solution like Princess Si-ling’s discovery of silk fiber when she dropped a cocoon in her cup of hot tea ot Goodyear’s discovery of pliable rubber.

Trips to Planets. Yet plans are seriously talked about for building huge ships tv remain always in space and ply between planets. They will theoretically connect with “locals” which make short trips through planetary atmospheres. Imagine astronomers, if you can, acting as despatchers, watching the progress of an “express” from Mars so that a “local” from earth can make proper connections! “If we could only get rid of the earth’s gravitational pull,” is a lament most often heard. In order to over come this difficulty, any projectile or rocket ship must have an initial speed of at least 7 miles per second. Without gravitation there could Imho atmosphere and hence no living things such as aro visible on earth to day. Mercury, which is the nearest to the sun uf nine known planets, must be definitely discarded as a possible anode of living things for this reason. It is so much smaller than earth, that loose objects and gaseous molecules would be flung off into space. Little Known Pluto. Little is known about Pluto, the most distant and most recently discovered planet. Lowell Observatory believes it to be about the size of Mars and so fa. out in space that very little heat from the sun can reach it. It must bo far colder than we can imagine. While a year on Mercury is over in 88 days, the planet taking less than throe months to complete its small orbit, Pluto takes 250 years to make its circuit. That there may be one or more planets out beyond Pluto, astronomers hold to be quite likely, but systematic searching has thus far failed to produce any others. Neptune and Uranus are considerably smaller in size than either Jupiter or Saturn, but still much larger than earth and Venus put together. In distance from the sun, Neptune is farthest removed, with Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter following in order. A most unusual fact concerning Jupiter and Saturn is their method of revolving, not as a solid body should, but more rapidly at the equator than at higlie. latitudes. This is held responsible for their belted appearance. The same may be true of Neptune and Uranus. Jupiter’s extra rapid rotations not only flattens tho planet at the poles but gives it the shortest “day” of any planet, lasting only nine hours and 55 minutes. At one time it was believed Jupiter had a fairly warm temperature, but now it is known to be at least ISO degress below zeru—a most uncomfortable climate. Still another discovery held hopeful a lew \ears ago concerned the clouds that hide the surface. Clouds also hide the earth’s surface to observers elsewhere in the solar system. But the clouds of Jupiter have turned out to be diflerent. Whereas ours are water vapour, those of Jupiter aro largely ammonia and a smaller quantity of marsh gas —two wholly undesirable elements in which to expect to find living things. Jupiter's red spot was identified recently as a giant island of

frozen ammonia, floating on a sea of I liquid hydrocarbons. Saturn likewis® 1 Ims a poisonous atmosphere, largely of marsh gas Oxygen Apparatus If we stop our planet express at either ot these junctions, aud it we an by any means manage to keep warm a tew minutes, it will be most .esirablu to carry oxygen breathing .pparatus Another 1 actor to think about ou ...pucT or batum is gravity. A bag ~u u enough to pocket. Jupiter would iVici louU eaitns buck great mass .jeans leirmc gravity puli in wlncn it ouid be impossible rot any creature liger Loan a Ilea to move. Like a Lain i)po ol preiiisioric dinosaur to© uvavy tu lumoei about on eartli, wn .>OUIU have io take to walking and auvjng in the shallow seas ot u.idioaruons Aud if Jupiter and Saturn are toe too tilled with deadly gases, there ,s uo need of buying tickets to Uranus or Neptune, for the same kind uf .itmospheie is piesent there, and ulab a temperature much colder. All of which leaves but two planetl io investigate, Mars and Venus. Of tha two, Venus is the larger aud the most like our own. With a diameter only miles less than the earth, the two arc often referred to as “twin planets.” A man weighing 200 pounds on earth would weigh approximately 170 on Venus. On Mars the scales would show' much less. Venus is believed by Dr. Henry Nor* 1 ris Russell to suggest what tho earth may have been like in the remote past, while Mars represents what tho earth will be in the remote future. The presence of oxygen in limited or abundant quantities is apparently tho determining feature of the question concerning ’ the probability of life ou either Mar* or Venus. On earth the supply would have been depleted long ago were it not for the plants. These cover the surface of uur planet and manufacture oxygen as a bv product. They in turn could not exist if it were not for carbon dioxide given off by animals through breathing,

ns well as by processes of combustion and decay. Oxygen used up in these processes is speedily returned tu the , atmosphere by plants. Oxy dising Process. However, there is another process which is irreversible, that of rockweathering—the rusting or oxydising process by which metals in the earth 1 surface are slowly absorbing oxygen. Goldschmidt has shown that ths amount of “fossil” oxygen buried i’l • sedimentary rocks is at least as great ’ as that now present in the atmosphere, and maybe twice as great. Dr. Russell 1 believes that, given time enough “rusN ing” might exhaust the remaining supply, but he puts the reckoning day 1 sufficiently distant —“a billion years from now, at least.” Mars is viewed as illustrating tho end of this process. The reddish colour is what one might expect, he says, in a surface stained with rust compounds. Nevertheless, in conclusion he says, “It would be premature to say that Man must be a lifeless planet. The depletion of oxygen would bo very slow and plant life would probably adjust itself as it has done on earth in response io far more rapid climatic changes. What about Martian canals? These had their beginning with a re* port written by the Italian astronomer Schiaparelli in 1877. He described great seas apparently joined together by line , markings which ho called in Italian “eanali.” But he did not mean to imply they were artificial or the work of intelligent beings. Artists’s Conception. Yet based on this, artists have drawn , what they conceive Martian engineer! would look like. Most ridiculous appearing are long spindly arms and legs, for with low’ gravity there is no need for muscles; a mammoth chest, for with little oxygen available, bellowslike lungs are needed to sift over more air; telescopic eyes; a tiny mouth; ears u* ’ large as gramophone horns, and a nose ' like an elephant. Thu possibility of living things on any of the planetary moons is practically ml, most astronomers are certain. None possess atmospheres of any kind to sustain even the lowest slime or I tiniest animalcule. , And Dr Edwin Hubble, Mt. Wil* ' son’s chief astronomer, hazards there may be as many as 1,000,000,000 world® like ours. His calculations show there are approximately 900,000,000,000,000 1 stars and if only ono out of every 1 900,000 hud a solar system of planet* like our own sun, there would be a possibility of 1,000,000,000 planets like the earth. But even radio waves would take more than four and a half years to reach such a world in a system of , the nearest star. Even if such wave! could penetrate the KenneHy-Heavisidi ; layer of our atmosphere, it would tal>«