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Show BRIGHT LIGHT i SOUTHWEST SKY, AS SEEN BY PEOPLE OF ' OGDEN, HAS WONDERFUL HISTORY- Secretary O. J. Stilwcll of the Ogden Publicity Bureau has been watching the "aeroplane" in the sky southwest of Ogden for several weeks. Mr. Stil-woll Stil-woll is a student of astronomy and was aware of the "aeroplane" when she first loomed forth in the sky. Today in speaking of the nocturnal visitor he said: "Perclval Lowell, the great astronomer astrono-mer who spent a great many years at tho Flagstaff observatory, devoted his energies to the study of the planets. As a result of his researches and that of other modern astronomers, a great deal has been learned about the surface sur-face of the planets: in' fact, littlo was known -concerning the surface condition condi-tion of tho planets until the last thirty years. "Venus, which is the brightest of all planets, was originally supposed to have an atmosphere containing a great amount of moisture which accounted for its reflection of over 72 per cent of tho light falling upon It. As is well known, Venus is between tho earth and tho sun which prevents our over seeing more than a small portion of Its surface which appears through a moderate sized glass as a crescent. Littlo was over learned by viewing Venus in this condition. Lowell and a few of his contemporaries devised means for studying the surface of Venus in the daytime while the planet was on the opposite side of the sun from us, in which position the entire circular surface of the planet appeared. appear-ed. "Lowell's discoveries led him to the folloowing conclusions: Venus, Instead of revolving on its axis- in a short period per-iod of time' as our earth does, makes only ono revolution on its axis in its entire year, which is a little over half tho length of our year, thus Venus always presents tho same side to th sun. In other words. Venus has one excessively hot and light side, the othor being excessively cold and dark Venus has no water upon the light side. It does, however, have an atmosphere atmos-phere of considerable density, which has resulted in a peculiar condition namely, the part of the planet towarc the sun is always excessively hot; cooler air constantly rushes from al points toward this heated center reaching which, it rises and graduallj drifts back toward the dark side of the planet, carrying with it clouds of sand probably mica or quartz, the reflection from which gives Venus its wonderful brightness. "It will easily bo seen that whatevci water Venus may have originally would have been evaporated, carried by those winds in the form of clouds to the dark side of the planet and there deposited in tho form of ico or snow whore it must remain, to this day. These constant winds have worn dark channels in tho bright faco of " the planet, appearing like spokes of a wheel. "Admitting Lowell's conclusions to be true, it is certain that no life such as we know can exist upon this planet. "Mercury, which may be seen by the naked oye at 6 o'clock in tho ovening between now and tho 17th of the month, is still nearer the sun than Venus, has tho same method of evolution, evolu-tion, namely, ono face toward the sun all the time, but it neither has water nor atmosphere and consequently must bo uninhabited. "Venus is the airplane which has been observed for several nights past, and will be at its brightest on the 17. |