| OCR Text |
Show Venn aa a 5iter World j While watching these graceful wind- Ings of the planet, we naturally inquire j as to its rval condition. Readers are fa- . miliar with the idea that it is a world I like our own earth, traveling in a smaller I but otherwise almost similar orbitaround 1 the sun. On more minute inquiry we find thai the likeness between it and our earth is in some points very great greater, in fact, than in the case of any otb-r planet. In the fundamental ele-, ele-, ruent of size they are almost alike, our earth being ?.9uQ miles in diameter, and : Venus 7. .WO. The force of gravity on 1 ; the surface of the latter is very nearly j , nine-tenths of what it is with us. Its 1 density is almost the same fraction as j that of the eartlr. These facts show that if transported to the surface of Venus ' we should feel more at home, so far as ', some essential features of experience are I concerned, than on any other planet known to us. We should weigh just I about nine-tenths of our present weight. I and should find distances bearing much 1 the same ratio to our muscular power of J walking that they do in this world; while in all probability the surface rocks and earth, if such be formed there, would be compacted and constructed like those we daily see around us. This would not be the case on planets so much smaller than tho earth, as Mercury Mer-cury or Mars, or so much larger, as Jupiter, Ju-piter, Saturn or Neptune. Again, the year on Venus would be about 22o dayB in length, a good deal more like what we have on the earth than is the case on any other planet. In tho length of the day we should hud a still more home like experience, as the difference would bo imperceptible except to careful observation. ob-servation. Venus rotates in twenty-three twenty-three hours, twenty -one minutes, twenty-eight twenty-eight seconds, and the earth in twenty-three twenty-three hours, fifty-six minutes, four seconds. sec-onds. The day, of course, depends a ! little upon the motion of the sun in the I sky, but the difference between this, as j seen on our earth and from Venus, would not appreciably affect the similarity of I the days in each. These likenesses to j the length of our day and year and to our world's density would cause a similarity, simi-larity, in all probability, in tho important impor-tant matters of mountain form and of vegetation. In fact, so far Venus is nearly the twin sister of our world. Chambers' Journal. |
