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Show VENUS AMONG PLANETS IS MOST SUITED FOR HUMAN EXISTENCE Authority Rejects Theory That Life Exists On Other Nearby Planets; Temperature of Mars Estimated at 60 Degrees Below Zero W ASHINGTON. June 24. While thero may be many worlds millions of them populated by beings and cultured cul-tured by civilizations the planet Venus according to Dr. C. G Abbot, assistant secretary of the Smithsonian institute. Ls tho only one known to pclcntlsts whose conditions mot nearly approxi-1 mate those under which hfe thrives Writing In the annual report of the Institution, just made public Dr. Abbot, while he does not declare Venus to bo I Inhabited, rejects the possibility of other nearby planets holding Intelligent Intelli-gent life Dr. Abbot does cite, however, the chance that thero may bo any number of celestial bodies, yet Invisible through the most powerful telescope, on which there thrives some sort of life. BEYOND HUMAN sl;HT. As Is well known, the scientist states, stars aro suns like our own, and Just as Old Sol h:is his retinue of satellites, I of which one, at least, in inhabited, so may tho distant ones have one or moro populous followers. However, most of these are so far from us, he says, that it l hardly conceivable telescopes will ever be so perfected as to detect their systems, if they haye thm. or decide whether or not such bodies do SXist. The probability Is that they do so." Dr. Abbot states "and in such immense inumoers that among them thero may well be many suitable for abodes ot Intelligent life This subject, of course, opens the door wide for speculation but this field lies so far from iho calms of certainty that it is not my . purpose to enter upon It here." The. moon, ho continues. Is known to be a waterless, airless, mountainous desert. There is no probability whatever what-ever that intelligent life can be there No living things, scarcely even the hardest chemical compound, can exist ex-ist upon the sun because of the Intense heat. Water, if it could reach the sun as steam, would he instantly separated into Its component gases, oxygon and , hydrogen. COMPOSED or . ISES. Of the sun's outer planets. Neptune, I Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter aro considered con-sidered to be composed of gases of slight density The theory of life on these would be rejected for that rea- Ison alone Their temperatures, how- Iver, also would render them unfit for 'llf. that of Neptune being estimated at minus 400 decrees Fahrenheit. Uranus, minus 3S0 degrees. Saturn, minus 330. and Jupiter, minus 270. Moreover, their density ls another factor; the density of Jupiter which Is tho greatest great-est of tho four, is only 13 that of water As shown by Its low reflecting power Mercury, Dr. Abbot declares, like tho moon. Ls an airless, waterless waste, and being besides baked by a torrid heat, twelvefold that of our own planrt there can be no thought of life there. REQ1 I SITES OF I ILK The main requisites of life are light, certain Inorganic salts, carbon com-poimds com-poimds water itul warmth Plant and life requirement.-! of light arc very elastic. Plants grow . and animals thrive on earth where light 19 a thousandfold less than daylight, and the full sun ls far from being too strong for most of them. s to Mars, the scientists declarer, thorough researches have shown the atmosphere of that body to contain less than one-fifth of the water vapor found on tho summit of Mount Hamilton Hamil-ton In the coldest, clearest winter nights. The solar radiation received on Mars is only six-tenths of that on the earth and, with no moisture blank-'et blank-'et In the atmosphere to consc-re tho heat, Mars' temperature Is estimated to approximate CO degrees below rv ro, Fahrenheit. Telescopic studies reveal no clouds on Mars, Dr. Abbot declares, In stating that he cannot accept the views of those who "claim great thlnr: i i for Mars." OBSER1 A IK INS Dill, It, It has been shown by other scientists, scient-ists, he says, that descriptions of the Martian markings observed by many, differ widely. As widely and conlra-, conlra-, dh-torily a - would be expected of d- scrlptlons of the moon by persons who i had never observed our satellite without with-out a telescop. . The Martian polar caps, ho believes, may be thin deposits of hoar frost, or frozen carbonic acid ' gas. The light on Venus 1: 1.1 that of the earth spectroscopic observations oil star light and analyses of star mater-' lals fall) n upon the earth, show that, tho stars aro composed of exactly tho' same components as the earth There-fore, There-fore, two conditions are fulfulled on Venus Water vapor and watr clouds ar responsible for maintaining equabH temperatures; the water vapor In the. Berth's atmosphere seems to be respon-i slhlo for maintaining our tmperaturc fully GO degrees V. above what It would be. If. notwithstanding the absence of clouds, the sun shone no more Intensely Intense-ly on the earth, it remains to be pro -ed by scientists that moisture conditions condi-tions essential to life prevail on Ven-us. Ven-us. VENUS ALWAYS (TU'DY The only obstacle to deciding forever 'ho habttablllty of Venus Is her ever surrounding onvlopo of clouds. There has never been absolute proof that the surface of Venus has ever been seen by an earthly ohscrver, the article states Many observers have claimed to have penetrated to the planet's surface sur-face but no decisive proofo have been offered. This fact alone savs Dr. Ab- Ibot, seem sufficient tb render dlsputa- Itive observations tending to show that the rotation ol Venus about Its axis is eiual to her period of revolution about ,the sun. ' Were this a fact, scientists claim. one face of the planet would ever be turned toward Iho life-giving sun. with 'the result that that half would b con-Btantl) con-Btantl) In blistering heat, while the other would be extremest cold However. Dr. Abbot declares, tho high reflecting power of Venus, about 60 per cent, demands apparently the I existence of clouds and these clouds lean hardly be of other substance than I water If It were a fact that the rotation period of VenilS wore equal to the period of revolution all the water would he distilled from the hot sld. to cold and theso clouds would dls-lappear. dls-lappear. FURTirFP. EXPERIMENTS Deciding the period of rotation Is nt present dependent upon spectroscopic observations and they are not competent compet-ent to indicate moro than that the period per-iod of rotation is large as compared to our day. They are not accurate enough !to show that the period of rotation Is ! 225 days, equal to tho year of Venus, but it may be anything abovo ten ter-Irestrtal ter-Irestrtal days As for tho reported ob-Iservutlon ob-Iservutlon of markings upon the p!an-t. jwhlch ore paid to rotate in 225 day. !thls observation can only be regarded jwlth the greatest doubtfulness, is Dr. Abhot's conclusion He notes that spectroscopic studies! bv the- scientist St. John, tend to throw doubt on the existence of water vapor In the atmosphere of Venus. His observations ob-servations hav o shown few, if an, water lines In tho spectrum of tho planet If this were so, and the c!oud3 are not water clouds, habltabllity of Venus would be an improbability, Dr., Abbot says. It ls difficult, however, ho states." to understand the high reflecting re-flecting power If clouds are absent. Dr. Abbot believes, however, that the absence of water lines in the spec-i Ira of St. John, ls tho result of the light being reflected from the cloud, back to earth, through such a thin envelope of water vapor as to render Invisible tho water vapor lines. Tins possibility coincides both views, and further experiments are to bo conducted conduct-ed this summer to that end. If the clouds on Venus aro water .clouds then. Dr Abbot concludes conditions con-ditions of temperature and moisture on j Venus are very similar to those upon I this earth, and our sister planet lacks I no essential t0 habltabllity |
