MARS, A WORLD MORE ADVANCED THAN OURS

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MARS, A WORLD MORE ADVANCED THAN OURS

Mars is the fourth planet in the order of distance from the sun, and the outermost member of the terrestrial group. Its mean distance is 141,500,000 miles, variable, through the eccentricity of its orbit, to the extent of about 13,000,000 miles. It will be observed that this is only a million miles less than the variation in Mercury's distance from the sun, from which, in a previous chapter, were deduced most momentous consequences; but, in the case of Mars, the ratio of the variation to the mean distance is far smaller than with Mercury, so that the effect upon the temperature of the planet is relatively insignificant.

Mars gets a little less than half as much solar light and heat as the earth receives, its situation in this respect being just the opposite to that of Venus. Its period of orbital revolution, or the length of its year, is 687 of our days. The diameter of Mars is 4,200 miles, and its density is 73 per cent of the earth's density. Gravity on its surface is only 38 per cent of terrestrial gravity—i.e., a one hundred-pound weight removed from the earth to Mars would there weigh but thirty-eight pounds. Mars evidently has an atmosphere, the details of which we shall discuss later.

The poles of the planet are inclined from a perpendicular to the plane of its orbit at very nearly the same angle as that of the earth's poles, viz., 24° 50′. Its rotation on its axis is also effected in almost the same period as the earth's, viz., 24 hours, 37 minutes.

When in opposition to the sun, Mars may be only about 35,000,000 miles from the earth, but its average distance when in that position is more than 48,000,000 miles, and may be more than 60,000,000. These differences arise from the eccentricities of the orbits of the two planets. When on the[Pg 87] farther side of the sun—i.e., in conjunction with the sun as seen from the earth—Mars's average distance from us is about 235,000,000 miles. In consequence of these great changes in its distance, Mars is sometimes a very conspicuous object in the sky, and at other times inconspicuous.

The similarity in the inclination of the axis of the two planets results in a close resemblance between the seasons on Mars and on the earth, although, owing to the greater length of its year, Mars's seasons are much longer than ours. Winter and summer visit in succession its northern and southern hemispheres just as occurs on the planet that we inhabit, and the torrid, temperate, and frigid zones on its surface have nearly the same angular width as on the earth. In this respect Mars is the first of the foreign planets we have studied to resemble the earth.

Around each of its poles appears a circular white patch, which visibly expands when winter prevails upon it, and rapidly contracts, sometimes almost completely dis[Pg 88]appearing, under a summer sun. From the time of Sir William Herschel the almost universal belief among astronomers has been that these gleaming polar patches on Mars are composed of snow and ice, like the similar glacial caps of the earth, and no one can look at them with a telescope and not feel the liveliest interest in the planet to which they belong, for they impart to it an appearance of likeness to our globe which at first glance is all but irresistible.

To watch one of them apparently melting, becoming perceptibly smaller week after week, while the general surface of the corresponding hemisphere of the planet deepens in color, and displays a constantly increasing wealth of details as summer advances across it, is an experience of the most memorable kind, whose effect upon the mind of the observer is indescribable.

Early in the history of the telescope it became known that, in addition to the polar caps, Mars presented a number of distinct surface features, and gradually, as instruments increased in power and observers in[Pg 89] skill, charts of the planet were produced showing a surface diversified somewhat in the manner that characterizes the face of the earth, although the permanent forms do not closely resemble those of our planet.

Two principal colors exist on the disk of Mars—dark, bluish gray or greenish gray, characterizing areas which have generally been regarded as seas, and light yellowish red, overspreading broad regions looked upon as continents. It was early observed that if the dark regions really are seas, the proportion of water to land upon Mars is much smaller than upon the earth.

For two especial reasons Mars has generally been regarded as an older or more advanced planet than the earth. The first reason is that, accepting Laplace's theory of the origin of the planetary system from a series of rings left off at the periphery of the contracting solar nebula, Mars must have come into existence earlier than the earth, because, being more distant from the center of the system, the ring from which it was formed would have been separated[Pg 90] sooner than the terrestrial ring. The second reason is that Mars being smaller and less massive than the earth has run through its developments a cooling globe more rapidly. The bearing of these things upon the problems of life on Mars will be considered hereafter.

And now, once more, Schiaparelli appears as the discoverer of surprising facts about one of the most interesting worlds of the solar system. During the exceptionally favorable opposition of Mars in 1877, when an American astronomer, Asaph Hall, discovered the planet's two minute satellites, and again during the opposition of 1879, the Italian observer caught sight of an astonishing network of narrow dark lines intersecting the so-called continental regions of the planet and crossing one another in every direction. Schiaparelli did not see the little moons that Hall discovered, and Hall did not perceive the enigmatical lines that Schiaparelli detected. Hall had by far the larger and more powerful telescope; Schiaparelli had much the[Pg 91] more steady and favorable atmosphere for astronomical observation. Yet these differences in equipment and circumstances do not clearly explain why each observer should have seen what the other did not.

There may be a partial explanation in the fact that an observer having made a remarkable discovery is naturally inclined to confine his attention to it, to the neglect of other things. But it was soon found that Schiaparelli's lines—to which he gave the name "canals," merely on account of their shape and appearance, and without any intention to define their real nature—were excessively difficult telescopic objects. Eight or nine years elapsed before any other observer corroborated Schiaparelli's observations, and notwithstanding the "sensation" which the discovery of the canals produced they were for many years regarded by the majority of astronomers as an illusion.

But they were no illusion, and in 1881 Schiaparelli added to the astonishment created by his original discovery, and furnished additional grounds for skepticism, by an[Pg 92]nouncing that, at certain times, many of the canals geminated, or became double! He continued his observations at each subsequent opposition, adding to the number of the canals observed, and charting them with classical names upon a detailed map of the planet's surface.

At length in 1886 Perrotin, at Nice, detected many of Schiaparelli's canals, and later they were seen by others. In 1888 Schiaparelli greatly extended his observations, and in 1892 and 1894 some of the canals were studied with the 36-inch telescope of the Lick Observatory, and in the last-named year a very elaborate series of observations upon them was made by Percival Lowell and his associates, Prof. William C. Pickering and Mr. A.E. Douglass, at Flagstaff, Arizona. Mr. Lowell's charts of the planet are the most complete yet produced, containing 184 canals to which separate names have been given, besides more than a hundred other markings also designated by individual appellations.

It should not be inferred from the fact[Pg 93] that Schiaparelli's discovery in 1877 excited so much surprise and incredulity that no glimpse of the peculiar canal-like markings on Mars had been obtained earlier than that. At least as long ago as 1864 Mr. Dawes, in England, had seen and sketched half a dozen of the larger canals, or at least the broader parts of them, especially where they connect with the dark regions known as seas, but Dawes did not see them in their full extent, did not recognize their peculiar character, and entirely failed to catch sight of the narrower and more numerous ones which constitute the wonderful network discovered by the Italian astronomer. Schiaparelli found no less than sixty canals during his first series of observations in 1877.

Let us note some of the more striking facts about the canals which Schiaparelli has described. We can not do better than quote his own words:

"There are on this planet, traversing the continents, long dark lines which may be designated as canals, although we do not[Pg 94] yet know what they are. These lines run from one to another of the somber spots that are regarded as seas, and form, over the lighter, or continental, regions a well-defined network. Their arrangement appears to be invariable and permanent; at least, as far as I can judge from four and a half years of observation. Nevertheless, their aspect and their degree of visibility are not always the same, and depend upon circumstances which the present state of our knowledge does not yet permit us to explain with certainty. In 1879 a great number were seen which were not visible in 1877, and in 1882 all those which had been seen at former oppositions were found again, together with new ones. Sometimes these canals present themselves in the form of shadowy and vague lines, while on other occasions they are clear and precise, like a trace drawn with a pen. In general they are traced upon the sphere like the lines of great circles; a few show a sensible lateral curvature. They cross one another obliquely, or at right angles. They have a breadth[Pg 95] of two degrees, or 120 kilometres [74 miles], and several extend over a length of eighty degrees, or 4,800 kilometres [nearly 3,000 miles]. Their tint is very nearly the same as that of the seas, usually a little lighter. Every canal terminates at both its extremities in a sea, or in another canal; there is not a single example of one coming to an end in the midst of dry land.

"This is not all. In certain seasons these canals become double. This phenomenon seems to appear at a determinate epoch, and to be produced simultaneously over the entire surface of the planet's continents. There was no indication of it in 1877, during the weeks that preceded and followed the summer solstice of that world. A single isolated case presented itself in 1879. On the 26th of December, this year—a little before the spring equinox, which occurred on Mars on the 21st of January, 1880—I noticed the doubling of the Nile [a canal thus named] between the Lakes of the Moon and the Ceraunic Gulf. These two regular, equal, and parallel lines caused me, I con[Pg 96]fess, a profound surprise, the more so because a few days earlier, on the 23d and the 24th of December, I had carefully observed that very region without discovering anything of the kind.

"I awaited with curiosity the return of the planet in 1881, to see if an analogous phenomenon would present itself in the same place, and I saw the same thing reappear on the 11th of January, 1882, one month after the spring equinox—which occurred on the 8th of December, 1881. The duplication was still more evident at the end of February. On this same date, the 11th of January, another duplication had already taken place, that of the middle portion of the canal of the Cyclops, adjoining Elysium. [Elysium is a part of one of the continental areas.]

"Yet greater was my astonishment when, on the 19th of January, I saw the canal Jamuna, which was then in the center of the disk, formed very rigidly of two parallel straight lines, crossing the space which separates the Niliac Lake from the Gulf of[Pg 97] Aurora. At first sight I believed it was an illusion, caused by fatigue of the eye and some new kind of strabismus, but I had to yield to the evidence. After the 19th of January I simply passed from wonder to wonder; successively the Orontes, the Euphrates, the Phison, the Ganges, and the larger part of the other canals, displayed themselves very clearly and indisputably duplicated. There were not less than twenty examples of duplication, of which seventeen were observed in the space of a month, from the 19th of January to the 19th of February.

"In certain cases it was possible to observe precursory symptoms which are not lacking in interest. Thus, on the 13th of January, a light, ill-defined shade extended alongside the Ganges; on the 18th and the 19th one could only distinguish a series of white spots; on the 20th the shadow was still indecisive, but on the 21st the duplication was perfectly clear, such as I observed it until the 23d of February. The duplication of the Euphrates, of the canal of the[Pg 98] Titans, and of the Pyriphlegethon also began in an uncertain and nebulous form.

"These duplications are not an optical effect depending on increase of visual power, as happens in the observation of double stars, and it is not the canal itself splitting in two longitudinally. Here is what is seen: To the right or left of a pre-existing line, without any change in the course and position of that line, one sees another line produce itself, equal and parallel to the first, at a distance generally varying from six to twelve degrees—i.e., from 350 to 700 kilometres (217 to 434 miles); even closer ones seem to be produced, but the telescope is not powerful enough to distinguish them with certainty. Their tint appears to be a quite deep reddish brown. The parallelism is sometimes rigorously exact. There is nothing analogous in terrestrial geography. Everything indicates that here there is an organization special to the planet Mars, probably connected with the course of its seasons."[1]

[Pg 99]

Schiaparelli adds that he took every precaution to avoid the least suspicion of illusion. "I am absolutely sure," he says, "of what I have observed."

I have quoted his statement, especially about the duplication of the canals, at so much length, both on account of its intrinsic interest and because it has many times been argued that this particular phenomenon must be illusory even though the canals are real.

One of the most significant facts that came out in the early observations was the evident connection between the appearance of the canals and the seasonal changes on Mars. It was about the time of the spring equinox, when the white polar caps had begun to melt, that Schiaparelli first noticed the phenomenon of duplication. As the season advanced the doubling of the canals increased in frequency and the lines became more distinct. In the meantime the polar caps were becoming smaller. Broadly speaking, Schiaparelli's observation showed that the doubling of the canals occurred[Pg 100] principally a little after the spring equinox and a little before the autumn equinox; that the phenomenon disappeared in large part at the epoch of the winter solstice, and disappeared altogether at the epoch of the summer solstice. Moreover, he observed that many of the canals, without regard to duplication, were invisible at times, and reappeared gradually; faint, scarcely visible lines and shadows, deepened and became more distinct until they were clearly and sharply defined, and these changes, likewise, were evidently seasonal.

The invariable connection of the canals at their terminations with the regions called seas, the fact that as the polar caps disappeared the sealike expanses surrounding the polar regions deepened in color, and other similar considerations soon led to the suggestion that there existed on Mars a wonderful system of water circulation, whereby the melting of the polar snows, as summer passed alternately from one hemisphere to the other, served to reenforce the supply of water in the seas, and, through[Pg 101] the seas, in the canals traversing the broad expanses of dry land that occupy the equatorial regions of the planet. The thought naturally occurred that the canals might be of artificial origin, and might indicate the existence of a gigantic system of irrigation serving to maintain life upon the globe of Mars. The geometrical perfection of the lines, their straightness, their absolute parallelism when doubled, their remarkable tendency to radiate from definite centers, lent strength to the hypothesis of an artificial origin. But their enormous size, length, and number tended to stagger belief in the ability of the inhabitants of any world to achieve a work so stupendous.

After a time a change of view occurred concerning the nature of the expanses called seas, and Mr. Lowell, following his observations of 1894, developed the theory of the water circulation and irrigation of Mars in a new form. He and others observed that occasionally canals were visible cutting straight across some of the greenish, or bluish-gray, areas that had been regarded as[Pg 102] seas. This fact suggested that, instead of seas, these dark expanses may rather be areas of marshy ground covered with vegetation which flourishes and dies away according as the supply of water alternately increases and diminishes, while the reddish areas known as continents are barren deserts, intersected by canals; and as the water released by the melting of the polar snows begins to fill the canals, vegetation springs up along their sides and becomes visible in the form of long narrow bands.

According to this theory, the phenomena called canals are simply lines of vegetation, the real canals being individually too small to be detected. It may be supposed that from a central supply canal irrigation ditches are extended for a distance of twenty or thirty miles on each side, thus producing a strip of fertile soil from forty to sixty miles wide, and hundreds, or in some cases two or three thousands, of miles in length.

The water supply being limited, the inhabitants can not undertake to irrigate the entire surface of the thirsty land, and con[Pg 103]venience of circulation induces them to extend the irrigated areas in the form of long lines. The surface of Mars, according to Lowell's observation, is remarkably flat and level, so that no serious obstacle exists to the extension of the canal system in straight bands as undeviating as arcs of great circles.

Wherever two or more canals meet, or cross, a rounded dark spot from a hundred miles, or less, to three hundred miles in diameter, is seen. An astonishing number of these appear on Mr. Lowell's charts. Occasionally, as occurs at the singular spot named Lacus Solis, several canals converging from all points of the compass meet at a central point like the spokes of a wheel; in other cases, as, for instance, that of the long canal named Eumenides, with its continuation Orcus, a single conspicuous line is seen threading a large number of round dark spots, which present the appearance of a row of beads upon a string. These circular spots, which some have regarded as lakes, Mr. Lowell believes are rather oases[Pg 104] in the great deserts, and granting the correctness of his theory of the canals the aptness of this designation is apparent.[2]

Wherever several canals, that is to say, several bands of vegetation or bands of life, meet, it is reasonable to assume that an irrigated and habitable area of considerable extent will be developed, and in such places the imagination may picture the location of the chief centers of population, perhaps in the form of large cities, or perhaps in groups of smaller towns and villages. The so-called Lacus Solis is one of these localities.

So, likewise, it seems but natural that along the course of a broad, well-irrigated band a number of expansions should occur, driving back the bounds of the desert, forming rounded areas of vegetation, and thus affording a footing for population. Wherever two bands cross such areas would be sure to exist, and in almost every instance[Pg 105] of crossing the telescope actually shows them.

As to the gemination or duplication of many of the lines which, at the beginning of the season, appear single, it may be suggested that, in the course of the development of the vast irrigation system of the planet parallel bands of cultivation have been established, one receiving its water supply from the canals of the other, and consequently lagging a little behind in visibility as the water slowly percolates through the soil and awakens the vegetation. Or else, the character of the vegetation itself may differ as between two such parallel bands, one being supplied with plants that spring up and mature quickly when the soil about their roots is moistened, while the plants in the twin band respond more slowly to stimulation.

Objection has been made to the theory of the artificial origin of the canals of Mars on the ground, already mentioned, that the work required to construct them would be beyond the capacity of any race of creatures[Pg 106] resembling man. The reply that has been made to this is twofold. In the first place, it should be remembered that the theory, as Mr. Lowell presents it, does not assert that the visible lines are the actual canals, but only that they are strips of territory intersected, like Holland or the center of the plain of Lombardy, by innumerable irrigation canals and ditches. To construct such works is clearly not an impossible undertaking, although it does imply great industry and concentration of effort.

In the second place, since the force of gravity on Mars is in the ratio of only 38 to 100 compared with the earth's, it is evident that the diminished weight of all bodies to be handled would give the inhabitants of Mars an advantage over those of the earth in the performance of manual labor, provided that they possess physical strength and activity as great as ours. But, in consequence of this very fact of the slighter force of gravity, a man upon Mars could attain a much greater size, and consequently much greater muscular strength,[Pg 107] than his fellows upon the earth possess without being oppressed by his own weight. In other words, as far as the force of gravity may be considered as the decisive factor, Mars could be inhabited by giants fifteen feet tall, who would be relatively just as active, and just as little impeded in their movements by the weight of their bodies, as a six-footer is upon the earth. But they would possess far more physical strength than we do, while, in doing work, they would have much lighter materials to deal with.

Whether the theory that the canals of Mars really are canals is true or not, at any rate there can now be no doubt as to the existence of the strange lines which bear that designation. The suggestion has been offered that their builders may no longer be in existence, Mars having already passed the point in its history where life must cease upon its surface. This brings us to consider again the statement, made near the beginning of this chapter, that Mars is, perhaps, at a more advanced stage of devel[Pg 108]opment than the earth. If we accept this view, then, provided there was originally some resemblance between Mars's life forms and those of the earth, the inhabitants of that planet would, at every step, probably be in front of their terrestrial rivals, so that at the present time they should stand well in advance. Mr. Lowell has, perhaps, put this view of the relative advancement in evolution of Mars and its inhabitants as picturesquely as anybody.

"In Mars," he says, "we have before us the spectacle of a world relatively well on in years, a world much older than the earth. To so much about his age Mars bears witness on his face. He shows unmistakable signs of being old. Advancing planetary years have left their mark legible there. His continents are all smoothed down; his oceans have all dried up.... Mars being thus old himself, we know that evolution on his surface must be similarly advanced. This only informs us of its condition relative to the planet's capabilities. Of its actual state our data are not definite enough[Pg 109] to furnish much deduction. But from the fact that our own development has been comparatively a recent thing, and that a long time would be needed to bring even Mars to his present geological condition, we may judge any life he may support to be not only relatively, but really older than our own. From the little we can see such appears to be the case. The evidence of handicraft, if such it be, points to a highly intelligent mind behind it. Irrigation, unscientifically conducted, would not give us such truly wonderful mathematical fitness in the several parts to the whole as we there behold.... Quite possibly such Martian folk are possessed of inventions of which we have not dreamed, and with them electrophones and kinetoscopes are things of a bygone past, preserved with veneration in museums as relics of the clumsy contrivances of the simple childhood of the race. Certainly what we see hints at the existence of beings who are in advance of, not behind us, in the journey of life."[3]

[Pg 110]

Granted the existence of such a race as is thus described, and to them it might not seem a too appalling enterprise, when their planet had become decrepit, with its atmosphere thinned out and its supply of water depleted, to grapple with the destroying hand of nature and to prolong the career of their world by feats of chemistry and engineering as yet beyond the compass of human knowledge.

It is confidence, bred from considerations like these, in the superhuman powers of the supposed inhabitants of Mars that has led to the popular idea that they are trying to communicate by signals with the earth. Certain enigmatical spots of light, seen at the edge of the illuminated disk of Mars, and projecting into the unilluminated part—for Mars, although an outer planet, shows at particular times a gibbous phase resembling that of the moon just before or just after the period of full moon—have been interpreted by some, but without any scientific evidence, as of artificial origin.

Upon the assumption that these bright[Pg 111] points, and others occasionally seen elsewhere on the planet's disk, are intended by the Martians for signals to the earth, entertaining calculations have been made as to the quantity of light that would be required in the form of a "flash signal" to be visible across the distance separating the two planets. The results of the calculations have hardly been encouraging to possible investors in interplanetary telegraphy, since it appears that heliographic mirrors with reflecting surfaces measured by square miles, instead of square inches, would be required to send a visible beam from the earth to Mars or vice versa.

The projections of light on Mars can be explained much more simply and reasonably. Various suggestions have been made about them; among others, that they are masses of cloud reflecting the sunshine; that they are areas of snow; and that they are the summits of mountains crowned with ice and encircled with clouds. In fact, a huge mountain mass lying on the terminator, or the line between day and night,[Pg 112] would produce the effect of a tongue of light projecting into the darkness without assuming that it was snow-covered or capped with clouds, as any one may convince himself by studying the moon with a telescope when the terminator lies across some of its most mountainous regions. To be sure, there is reason to think that the surface of Mars is remarkably flat; yet even so the planet may have some mountains, and on a globe the greater part of whose shell is smooth any projections would be conspicuous, particularly where the sunlight fell at a low angle across them.

Another form in which the suggestion of interplanetary communication has been urged is plainly an outgrowth of the invention and surprising developments of wireless telegraphy. The human mind is so constituted that whenever it obtains any new glimpse into the arcana of nature it immediately imagines an indefinite and all but unlimited extension of its view in that direction. So to many it has not appeared unreasonable to assume that, since it is possi[Pg 113]ble to transmit electric impulses for considerable distances over the earth's surface by the simple propagation of a series of waves, or undulations, without connecting wires, it may also be possible to send such impulses through the ether from planet to planet.

The fact that the electric undulations employed in wireless telegraphy pass between stations connected by the crust of the earth itself, and immersed in a common atmospheric envelope, is not deemed by the supporters of the theory in question as a very serious objection, for, they contend, electric waves are a phenomenon of the ether, which extends throughout space, and, given sufficient energy, such waves could cross the gap between world and world.

But nobody has shown how much energy would be needed for such a purpose, and much less has anybody indicated a way in which the required energy could be artificially developed, or cunningly filched from the stores of nature. It is, then, purely an assumption, an interesting figment of the[Pg 114] mind, that certain curious disturbances in the electrical state of the air and the earth, affecting delicate electric instruments, possessing a marked periodicity in brief intervals of time, and not yet otherwise accounted for, are due to the throbbing, in the all-enveloping ether, of impulses transmitted from instruments controlled by the savants of Mars, whose insatiable thirst for knowledge, and presumably burning desire to learn whether there is not within reach some more fortunate world than their half-dried-up globe, has led them into a desperate attempt to "call up" the earth on their interplanetary telephone, with the hope that we are wise and skilful enough to understand and answer them.

In what language they intend to converse no one has yet undertaken to tell, but the suggestion has sapiently been made that, mathematical facts being invariable, the eternal equality of two plus two with four might serve as a basis of understanding, and that a statement of that truth sent by electric taps across the ocean of ether[Pg 115] would be a convincing assurance that the inhabitants of the planet from which the message came at least enjoyed the advantages of a common-school education.

But, while speculation upon this subject rests on unverified, and at present unverifiable, assumptions, of course everybody would rejoice if such a thing were possible, for consider what zest and charm would be added to human life if messages, even of the simplest description, could be sent to and received from intelligent beings inhabiting other planets! It is because of this hold that it possesses upon the imagination, and the pleasing pictures that it conjures up, that the idea of interplanetary communication, once broached, has become so popular a topic, even though everybody sees that it should not be taken too seriously.

The subject of the atmosphere of Mars can not be dismissed without further consideration than we have yet given it, because those who think the planet uninhabitable base their opinion largely upon the[Pg 116] assumed absence of sufficient air to support life. It was long ago recognized that, other things being equal, a planet of small mass must possess a less dense atmosphere than one of large mass. Assuming that each planet originally drew from a common stock, and that the amount and density of its atmosphere is measured by its force of gravity, it can be shown that Mars should have an atmosphere less than one fifth as dense as the earth's.

Dr. Johnstone Stoney has attacked the problem of planetary atmospheres in another way. Knowing the force of gravity on a planet, it is easy to calculate the velocity with which a body, or a particle, would have to start radially from the planet in order to escape from its gravitational control. For the earth this critical velocity is about seven miles per second; for Mars about three miles per second. Estimating the velocity of the molecules of the various atmospheric gases, according to the kinetic theory, Dr. Stoney finds that some of the smaller planets, and the moon, are gravi[Pg 117]tationally incapable of retaining all of these gases in the form of an atmosphere. Among the atmospheric constituents that, according to this view, Mars would be unable permanently to retain is water vapor. Indeed, he supposes that even the earth is slowly losing its water by evaporation into space, and on Mars, owing to the slight force of gravity there, this process would go on much more rapidly, so that, in this way, we have a means of accounting for the apparent drying up of that planet, while we may be led to anticipate that at some time in the remote future the earth also will begin to suffer from lack of water, and that eventually the chasms of the sea will yawn empty and desolate under a cloudless sky.

But it is not certain that the original supply of atmospheric elements was in every case proportional to the respective force of gravity of a planet. The fact that Venus appears to have an atmosphere more extensive and denser than the earth's, although its force of gravity is a little less than that of our globe, indicates at once[Pg 118] a variation as between these two planets in the amount of atmospheric material at their disposal. This may be a detail depending upon differences in the mode, or in the stage, of their evolution. Thus, after all, Dr. Stoney's theory may be substantially correct and yet Mars may retain sufficient water to form clouds, to be precipitated in snow, and to fill its canals after each annual melting of the polar caps, because the original supply was abundant, and its escape is a gradual process, only to be completed by age-long steps.

Even though the evidence of the spectroscope, as far as it goes, seems to lend support to the theory that there is no water vapor in the atmosphere of Mars, we can not disregard the visual evidence that, nevertheless, water vapor exists there.

What are the polar caps if they are not snow? Frozen carbon dioxide, it has been suggested; but this is hardly satisfactory, for it offers no explanation of the fact that when the polar caps diminish, and in proportion as they diminish, the "seas" and[Pg 119] the canals darken and expand, whereas a reasonable explanation of the correlation of these phenomena is offered if we accept the view that the polar caps consist of snow.

Then there are many observations on record indicating the existence of clouds in Mars's atmosphere. Sometimes a considerable area of its surface has been observed to be temporarily obscured, not by dense masses of cloud such as accompany the progress of great cyclonic storms across the continents and oceans of the earth, but by comparatively thin veils of vapor such as would be expected to form in an atmosphere so comparatively rare as that of Mars. And these clouds, in some instances at least, appear, like the cirrus streaks and dapples in our own air, to float at a great elevation. Mr. Douglass, one of Mr. Lowell's associates in the observations of 1894 at Flagstaff, Arizona, observed what he believed to be a cloud over the unilluminated part of Mars's disk, which, by micrometric measurement and estimate, was drifting at an elevation of about fifteen miles above the sur[Pg 120]face of the planet. This was seen on two successive days, November 25th and November 26th, and it underwent curious fluctuations in visibility, besides moving in a northerly direction at the rate of some thirteen miles an hour. But, upon the whole, as Mr. Lowell remarks, the atmosphere of Mars is remarkably free of clouds.

The reader will remember that Mars gets a little less than half as much heat from the sun as the earth gets. This fact also has been used as an argument against the habitability of the planet. In truth, those who think that life in the solar system is confined to the earth alone insist upon an almost exact reproduction of terrestrial conditions as a sine qua non to the habitability of any other planet. Venus, they think, is too hot, and Mars too cold, as if life were rather a happy accident than the result of the operation of general laws applicable under a wide variety of conditions. All that we are really justified in asserting is that Venus may be too hot and Mars too cold for us. Of course, if we adopt the opinion[Pg 121] held by some that the temperature on Mars is constantly so low that water would remain perpetually frozen, it does throw the question of the kind of life that could be maintained there into the realm of pure conjecture.

The argument in favor of an extremely low temperature on Mars is based on the law of the diminution of radiant energy inversely as the square of the distance, together with the assumption that no qualifying circumstances, or no modification of that law, can enter into the problem. According to this view, it could be shown that the temperature on Mars never rises above -200° F. But it is a view that seems to be directly opposed to the evidence of the telescope, for all who have studied Mars under favorable conditions of observation have been impressed by the rapid and extensive changes that the appearance of its surface undergoes coincidently with the variation of the planet's seasons. It has its winter aspect and its summer aspect, perfectly distinct and recognizable, in each[Pg 122] hemisphere by turns, and whether the polar caps be snow or carbon dioxide, at any rate they melt and disappear under a high sun, thus proving that an accumulation of heat takes place.

Professor Young says: "As to the temperature of Mars we have no certain knowledge. On the one hand, we know that on account of the planet's distance from the sun the intensity of solar radiation upon its surface must be less than here in the ratio of 1 to (1.524)^2—i.e., only about 43 per cent as great as with us; its 'solar constant' must be less than 13 calories against our 30. Then, too, the low density of its atmosphere, probably less at the planet's surface than on the tops of our highest mountains, would naturally assist to keep down the temperature to a point far below the freezing-point of water. But, on the other hand, things certainly look as if the polar caps were really masses of snow and ice deposited from vapor in the planet's atmosphere, and as if these actually melted during the Martian summer, sending floods of water through[Pg 123] the channels provided for them, and causing the growth of vegetation along their banks. We are driven, therefore, to suppose either that the planet has sources of heat internal or external which are not yet explained, or else, as long ago suggested, that the polar 'snow' may possibly be composed of something else than frozen water."[4]

Even while granting the worst that can be said for the low temperature of Mars, the persistent believer in its habitability could take refuge in the results of recent experiments which have proved that bacterial life is able to resist the utmost degree of cold that can be applied, microscopic organisms perfectly retaining their vitality—or at least their power to resume it—when subjected to the fearfully low temperature of liquid air. But then he would be open to the reply that the organisms thus treated are in a torpid condition and deprived of all activity until revived by the application of heat; and the picture of a world in a[Pg 124] state of perpetual sleep is not particularly attractive, unless the fortunate prince who is destined to awake the slumbering beauty can also be introduced into the romance.[5]

To an extent which most of us, perhaps, do not fully appreciate, we are indebted for many of the pleasures and conveniences and some of the necessities of life on our planet to its faithful attendant, the moon. Neither Mercury nor Venus has a moon, but Mars has two moons. This statement, standing alone, might lead to the conclusion that, as far as the advantages a satellite can afford to the inhabitants of its master planet are[Pg 125] concerned, the people of Mars are doubly fortunate. So they would be, perhaps, if Mars's moons were bodies comparable in size with our moon, but in fact they are hardly more than a pair of very entertaining astronomical toys. The larger of the two, Phobos, is believed to be about seven miles in diameter; the smaller, Deimos, only five or six miles. Their dimensions thus resemble those of the more minute of the asteroids, and the suggestion has even been made that they may be captured asteroids which have fallen under the gravitational control of Mars.

The diameters just mentioned are Professor Pickering's estimates, based on the amount of light the little satellites reflect, for they are much too small to present measurable disks. Deimos is 14,600 miles from the center of Mars and 12,500 miles from its surface. Phobos is 5,800 miles from the center of the planet and only 3,700 from the surface. Deimos completes a revolution about the planet in thirty hours and eighteen minutes, and Phobos in the astonish[Pg 126]ingly short period—although, of course, it is in strict accord with the law of gravitation and in that sense not astonishing—of seven hours and thirty-nine minutes.

Since Mars takes twenty-four hours and thirty-seven minutes for one rotation on its axis, it is evident that Phobos goes round the planet three times in the course of a single Martian day and night, rising, contrary to the general motion of the heavens, in the west, running in a few hours through all the phases that our moon exhibits in the course of a month, and setting, where the sun and all the stars rise, in the east. Deimos, on the other hand, has a period of revolution five or six hours longer than that of the planet's axial rotation, so that it rises, like the other heavenly bodies, in the east; but, because its motion is so nearly equal, in angular velocity, to that of Mars's rotation, it shifts very slowly through the sky toward the west, and for two or three successive days and nights it remains above the horizon, the sun overtaking and passing it again and again, while, in the meantime,[Pg 127] its protean face swiftly changes from full circle to half-moon, from half-moon to crescent, from crescent back to half, and from half to full, and so on without ceasing.

And during this time Phobos is rushing through the sky in the opposite direction, as if in defiance of the fundamental law of celestial revolution, making a complete circuit three times every twenty-four hours, and changing the shape of its disk four times as rapidly as Deimos does! Truly, if we were suddenly transported to Mars, we might well believe that we had arrived in the mother world of lunatics, and that its two moons were bewitched. Yet it must not be supposed that all the peculiarities just mentioned would be clearly seen from the surface of Mars by eyes like ours. The phases of Phobos would probably be discernible to the naked eye, but those of Deimos would require a telescope in order to be seen, for, notwithstanding their nearness to the planet, Mars's moons are inconspicuous phenomena even to the Martians themselves. Professor Young's estimate is[Pg 128] that Phobos may shed upon Mars one-sixtieth and Deimos one-twelve-hundredth as much reflected moonlight as our moon sends to the earth. Accordingly, a "moonlit night" on Mars can have no such charm as we associate with the phrase. But it is surely a tribute to the power and perfection of our telescopes that we have been able to discover the existence of objects so minute and inconspicuous, situated at a distance of many millions of miles, and half concealed by the glaring light of the planet close around which they revolve.

If Mars's moons were as massive as our moon is they would raise tremendous tides upon Mars, and would affect the circulation of water in the canals, but, in fact, their tidal effects are even more insignificant than their light-giving powers. But for astronomers on Mars they would be objects of absorbing interest.

Upon quitting Mars we pass to the second distinctive planetary group of the solar system, that of the asteroids.

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This book is part of the public domain. Garrett Putman Serviss (2006). Other Worlds. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/18431/pg18431-images.html

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