Show qf < J ill r COMMUNiCATION 1 WITD MARSO 1 L4 > I I > V t I O > 1 < < rl nl FCi The Illustrious Astronomer Camille Flammarion Says It Is Highly a V J fmfojfabie 1 4f11 12 III tt T stri sffi StrOnOnical s 177 v r tft S V5 I ftIs I w p v 7 J I i jjt b C > r r Is a h r r Impossible r T > > t tit l 1 fl 11 1 lE r It In highly possible that the end of nJ this century will see us In Intelligent hbai communication with other planets At r present our humanity la not ready for 1Or k attempts a little above Its habitual comprehension But the progress orG or-G optics will brine a powerful impetus to r the cause of Interplanetary signals as nr h well as to the study of astronomy Itself J It-self The recent Improvements made j In Instruments and lenses give us reason itj rea-son to hope that It tho advanco continues con-tinues and there Is no apparent reason y why it should not within the next fifty 1t1J t ears we shall nscertaln enough details lions on r tails of the physical conditions neighboring planets to allow us to decide I I cede whether or not they are Inhabited QCI Ai This point conclusively settled tae 3p energy will not be lacking to make scrl t ous attempts at exchanging signals 11 These signals must originate with us I far Mars tho most ac I i or at least so or as Is concerned liars is tr cctslble planet several millions of years older than the t earth If these neighbors more or less D li curious had desired to send us s signals a they would have made the Attempt rya 100000 years ago and repeated It perhaps per-haps 50000 years ago 10000 years ago I 7 without receiving any reply They would have concluded that the Inhabitants C Inhabi-tants of our planet were beings so Ignorant 1 l Ig-norant so materialistic as to takp not the slightest Interest In their heavenly I l environment In the solar system beings l I 11 be-ings who lived without Ideal or pur earth pose not even understanding tho 1i on which they trod Why then should t4i the Martians continue to address ques who to bipeds tions and messages It would require a would not reply II constancy of which they deem us unworthy ° un-worthy We have long since been judged It remains for us to give them I evidence that we are no longer In tho atone age or In a state more primitive still Communication between two planets Is founded on a repeated phenomenon whatever that phenomenon may be In I the present condition of astronomical physics there Is only one resource for communIcation lIghtrays Coming 1 years may show that astral magnetism electricity or attraction itself would be better that Is If they can be applied Its ItsIlrr plied i If An ordinary light burning in the open would be utterly dispersed Jn they the-y enormous distance To remedy this is a concave mirror acting as reflector E and projecting all the rays In one df1 O icctlon so that they will traverse c space without losing strength save through the opacity of the atmosphere s dE The shaft of light will assume a conical coni-cal form expanding as it penetrates In MOt pace Hence when the light has Ox J reached the distant planet the whole 1lf face of tho latter would be illuminated C st 1 But the light would have lost much of Its intensity A number of similar 11 lights might therefore be focusscd the samo spot If placed near one another m an-other on earth to an observer on ant an-t other planet they would appear to unite M In a single point becoming proportionately 3r proportion-ately brighter as the number increased It A light of sufficient power for this has a not yet been made electricity will Di probably furnish the means For signalling high latitudes seem to 1 combine many advantages the principal I princi-pal one being the long nights which r d would allow uninterrupted communications I communica-tions for entire months even with the 1 two interior planets In the equatorial j t1 = legions on the contrary there would be only tho brief nights and the draw back of skies frequently clouded over However it does not seem definitely proved that It Is Impossible to send signals sig-nals of sufficientintcnsltytoshlne 1 out on the lighted surface of the earthas more brilliant than the surroundings In this case the sun Itself might heW u he-W c l by concentrating Its rays In reflectors If the Inhabitants of Mars or Venus say were to perceive a light appearing suddenly on the earth they would consider con-sider It an astronomical phenomenon For the light to die out as abruptly as It o amo to burn steadily on or to flash out at tegular Intervals would not alter al-ter this Impression To convey Its meaning as a signal a sense of deliberate delib-erate Intention of life would be necessary neces-sary In Its movements To begin with enumeration by flashes could be resorted re-sorted to The numerals from one to I nine and zero would be laid aside as l too complicated and only the three elementary ele-mentary figures used In flashes first single then double then triple etc The signals would have to be repeated constantly The answer may be long In coming the signalers may become weary of waiting and persevering It would however be unwise to abandon the project or to Infer that the planets were uninhabited They might be inhabited in-habited by beings Inferior to ourselves I If n signal had been made to the earth before the day of Galileo there was no one who would have noticed them or could have attempted to reply Apart from the flashlight principle M Schmoll suggested to signal by representing rep-resenting on earth the constellation of the North Star This would be accomplished accom-plished by placing gigantic lights at Bordeaux Marseilles Strnsbdurg 0 Paris Amsterdam Copenhagen and Stockholm In 1SOO one Mme Guzman a friend of astronomy a believer In the plurality of the Inhabited worlds bequeathed to the Academic des Science the sum of 100000 francs to be awarded to the first one to communicate with any planet other than Mars The will furthermore said that for every period of fie years so long as the prize should not have been awarded the accumulated Interest Inter-est should bo given to a work marking real progress In astronomy For a long while tho Institute hesitated before accepting ac-cepting this legacy But in accepting It gave evidence of great breadth of thought and of laudable Independence I But what strange fancy entered the brain of the founder to make her introduce in-troduce the phrase other than the planet Mars The body best situated to enter first Into communication with the earth Is precisely that planet since the moon seems comparatively dead Jupiter and Saturn are probably still uninhabited arc very distant from us and can scarcely see us In close proximity prox-imity to the sun and the two other planets that are near us Mercury and Venus are surrounded by an atmosphere atmos-phere so dense that we scarcely see them Mars is the only world of our system which Is conveniently situated for signalling and yet It Is exceptcd from the contest If in the future the earth makes an attempt to communicate communi-cate with the other planets it Is pre clsely with Mars that the beginnlna must be made Some day when we have come to the ago ofrcason It vlll Indeed be beautiful to telegraph to our neighbors in the sky and tell them that we too exist And It Is probable that they will find little difficulty In replying CAMILLE FLAMMARION Although It may be a shock for those I who are fond of a sensation Ido not believe thatIt will ever possible to establish Interplanetary communication communica-tion I tionLet us speak first of the earth and I the planet Mars The distance between be-tween these two planets is too great to permit of communication they aro never less than 12000000 miles apart I think It probable that Mars Is Inhabited j In-habited It Is a planet which resembles resem-bles ours In a great mariy ways It has its continents Us seas Its clouds i Its snow Its seasons It takes longer than the earth to revolve around the sun The year of Mars numbers GSO I days but it revolves round Its axis I In twentyfour hours thirty seven minutes min-utes and twentythree seconds The days are therefore a little longer than ours During part of the year tho cold Is much more Intense than on our planet and the snow at the poles extends Itself It-self much further This climatic difference dif-ference has probably produced a more hardy race These observation are well known to scientists A great many photographs photo-graphs have been taken of different parts of the planet some very good ones were shown at the Paris exhibition exhibi-tion But between observing a planet and entering Into communication with Its Inhabitants there exists an abyss which cannot be crossed All who Interest themselves In astronomy as-tronomy have read about the canals which seem to put the seas of Mars In communication with each other Some f astronomers have gone so oras to I suggest that the geometrical lines of these canals can be accounted for only by the theory that they have been constructed con-structed by human beings But this Is pure speculation The human eye perceives distinctly anything within its visual ray in less than the tenth of a second The Impressions Im-pressions can therefore be considered as instantanebus and not subject to atmospheric disturbances Not so in photography of plants and stars Here at the observatory we take great numbers of photographs but atmospheric at-mospheric conditions do not permit us to take true ones more than four or five times a year The light sent out by the planet Is so reduced that tho least disturbance of the atmosphere changes the aspect of the photograph and under un-der these conditions no two of them are alike How is it therefore possible to be sure of what we think we see on the surface of these planets It Is otherwise for the sun The floods of light sent out by our day star almost al-most neutralizes the Influence of atmospheric at-mospheric disturbance on the sensitive plate Some astronomers have recently declared de-clared that they have detected geometrical I geomet-rical figures large dimensions formed by shining points on l1 surface of Mars They have suggested that these might be signals by which the astronomers astrono-mers of Mars wished to enter Into communication com-munication with the Inhabitants of the earth which is their most brilliant star But I think that optical Illusion plays greater part In these astronomical astronom-ical observations We have now flrstclass Instruments which magnify SOO times These dimensions di-mensions are detrimental to the distinctness dIS-tinctness of the pictures because the field of action for atmospheric disturbances disturb-ances Is correspondingly greater In order to be visible on Mars communications com-munications from the earth could be sent only by means of large geometrical geometri-cal figures of light signals These figures fig-ures should be at least 100 miles in size Before undertaking communication communica-tion with Mars astronomers must accept ac-cept as probable that Mars is inhabited that Its Inhabitants study the heavens as we do that they observe our planet in particular with Instruments similar to ours No signals sent out at such a formidable formid-able distance could bear the same aspect as-pect In a succession of photographs They might easily be mistaken for other objects According to the most probable cosmogonlc theories the planet Mars Is 7000000 years older than ho I earth The latter has been habitable for at least 20000000 years although mans first appearance upon it dates back about 100000 years Hence some astronomers assume that the inhabitants inhabi-tants of Mara arc more civilized than the Inhabitants of the earth This however is mere conjecture I am glad to say that astronomers have a great deal of Interesting work to do apart from attempting the impossible impos-sible AVc belong to that class where all racial difference disappears We form a cosmopolitan society so to speak where French English Germans Ger-mans Italians and last but not least Americans work in harmony together As far as communication with tho other planets is concerned It I Is alto gether out of question Neither their distances nor their sizes permit us to lalco such a subject into serious consideration con-sideration I take this opoitulty to express my high opinion American astronomers I cannot praise too highly their solid work the minuteness of their Investigations investi-gations their praiseworthy energy and their tireless perseverance MAURICE LOEWY |