Evening Star Newspaper, December 30, 1928, Page 65

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, DECEMBER 30, 1928—PART T. -~ ) Millions of New Worlds Will Be in Range of Monster Telescope BY DON GLASSMAN. IVE of John D. Rockefeller's mighty muiti-millions, 18,400 pounds of glittering, gorgeous gold, belong to anybody who can mold 50,000 pounds of com- mon sand into a 200-inch reflecting mirror for the world's greatest tele- Scope. %o the beach and fill up with granu- lated quartz. Experiment at home in your furnace. If results are favorable, Dotify the International Education | mense systems of stars form the most conspicuous examples of a sequence of Board, New York, to send four flat cars and a regiment of soldiers—you'll need all that. “Your feat will mark the | clliptical and globular nebulae. Within | the range of the 100-inch telescope at culmination of an alchemist’s dream— transmutation of sand into gold. ‘What John D. offers you, and the rest /ot us, too, is a chance to trade 50,000 pounds of sand for 18,400 pounds of gold. A boon for a man wrapped in a gray, sour mood. A horse trader would swap with the oil king in mid- stream. But to date Mr. Rockefeller and gen- tlemen of the board sit listless on their money bags. The field marshal of finance broods in his tent like a Gen. Alexander. No more honest men to Jure with mountains of gold. Five million eagles, and not_one promotion salesman offering to sell the Panama Canal instead of 50,000 pounds of mere sand. But Mr. Rockefeller's vision dwarfs Mr. Alexander's. Where the mad man ‘of Macedonia vanquished cities, fort- Tesses and dynasties, the oil baron’s gold will probe the unplumbed depths of space; invade, explore and conquer whole ealaxies; measure, describe and photograph such infinitudes of time and momentum as never vexed the hard heads of Alexander, Caesar and Antony. | WAll the conquered kingdoms in human history are as a pin point in Mr. Rocke- Heller’s celestial doman. Yesterday the National Association | Yor the Advancement of Science, meet- | 4ng at Columbia University, New York, heard Dr. Walter S. Adams, director iof the Mount Wilson Observatory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Miscuss plans for constructing and pos- pibilitles of the new telescope. The greatest difficulty and cost of the project lies in connection with the eflecting mirror, which concentrates ight rays of the eye piece. Its diameter awill be approximately 17 feet; area, 240 pquare feet; weight, 25 tons. The resent disk at Mount Wilson is only 00 inches in diameter. But a 200- ch reflector will bring into range of easurement stars at least ten times ainter than can be studied at present. A site for the 200-inch telescope has fpot yet been chosen. Probably it will Be built on a mountain top in the almy weather zone of Southern Cali- jornia or Arizona. Besides the large frror, many smaller auxiliary ones vill be necessary. The problem of nsporting them to an 8,000-foot Jevel will be fraught with immense difficulties; the least shock of injury jmay mar the highly polished surface. But in the instance of the 200-inch disk the problem is of such magnitude that it may be necessary to bring the factory to the mountain-top observa- ry and cast the mold almest on the bpot it will be used. * kK ¥ f FORE all large reflectors L were cast out of glass, but its woe- Hul deficiency for high-powered work fwill disqualify it for Mr. Rockefeller's disc. Nothing but the purest, whitest ppatural quartz will be fused in the melting pot and poured into the mold. Jt is expected that the great bulk of he new disc will not be totally free m impurities and air bubbles. But e surface layer will be poured out f a crystal quartz crucible and ground a perfect paraboloidal surface that be accurate to the order of one- ve hundred thousandth of an inch. No one can approach discussion of khis amazing telescope without losing bne’s self in superlatives, infinitudes, phuisms and neologisms. It em- roiders a poet’s imagination, it ex- usts our language and enhances our pad insignificance. Where the 100- ch ’scope brought 500,000,000 stars d many nebulae into range, the 200- ch device will gather to itself four es as much starlight, increase visual e to a distance of 400,000,000 light rs and prove the existence of more 1,000,000,000 new stars, countless es, nebulae and cosmic kingdoms. Not since an apple fell on Isaac New- fon's cranium and gave birth to the theory of gravitation has there been puch stimulus to astronomy and star fpazers. “Of numerous lines of investigation n which we can feel certain the 200- sh disk will extend our knowledge,” .. Adams said, “I shall speak in de- il of only three. “There can be little doubt that the trument will add some hundreds of illions of new stars which can be hotographed and measured for bright- jess. It is already known that the stars f our system, estimated at some thirty billion in number, are not equally attered in space, but thin out with creasing distance, least rapidly in the irection of the Milky Way and most pidly at right angles to it. Increased ght-gathering power of the new tele- pe will carry us much nearer to mndnies of our system and improve knowiedge of our island universe, of hich our sun forms en insignificant ember. “For analyzing light from faint stars instrument will prove invaluable. A tar's spectrum gives us information, ot only regarding its constitution and Burface temperature, but also regarding tion, distance, luminosity and state f matter composing it. It is difficult t present to photograph spectrums 000 times as bright as the limiting Erl(htness of stars which may be seen n direct photographs of the sky. . “What motion does this universe of tars have? What motions have in- ividual stars? Clusters of stars? And ow about faint stars which are our Mearest neighbors in the celestrial wault? \ “But in the realm of nebulae, or star flouds, we find the telescope’s richest feld of investigation, since the largest | ulae outside our own galaxy. These im- | | structural forms, which include spiral, ! Mount Wilson there are no less than | a million, but this will be increased at least to three million. | “Dr. Edwin Hubble has already re- | solved part of the nebulosity into indi- | vidual stars. We also have perfected | a means of gauging distance and dimen- sions of nebulae in which they occur. has been found to be 870,000 light years away and its diameter 45,000 light years. (Light travels 186,000 miles a second; |by a light ray in one year.) Androm- half times the light of our sun and its weight is probably 500,000,000 to a billion times as great. It is a mighty universe in itself. - “Among millions of other spirals only five or six can be studied in imilar way. The new reflector will greatly enhance our meager knowledge. Con- | ment will show nebulae of average size 000,000 light years, which is only a fraction of finite space recognized by the theory of relativity. “Equally important is the history of stellar systems which we see in spiral nebulae. A study of nebular stars will throw light on physical conditions pres- ent and a study of nebular forms may teach us how our own star system was created. “Passing to analysis of starlight, we have a field offering remarkable possi- bilities. The number, distribution and intensity of spectral lines are a sure index of physical conditions under which atoms exist. We know why stars of different temperature show different spectral lines, although material com- posing the stars is the same, and how it is possible for matter to exist with | densities several thousand times that of the heaviest element known on earth. “Messages contained in star spectra can be interpreted only if photographed on a large scale, so that thousands of individual lines in complicated spectra may be separated. To do this requires a very large telescope. A few bright stars have already been studied in this way and their spectra form a mine of valuable information. They have pro- vided a new method for determining In this manner the Andromeda nebula | one light year is the distance traveled | eda nebula throws off a billion and a | | servatively, it is estimated that we will | | be enabled to measure the distances | | of 20 new nebulae and determine with | | less accuracy the distances of 200 more. | “It is probable that the new instru- | and brightness 10 a distance of 400,- | With more than a billion souls squirm- ing and thriving on this bountiful planet, the human species is the only one that feels kinship with extrater- restrial space. Who dug the canals on Mars? Who sent out' radio signals from the ethereal blue? Who else lives with me? man asks. If I am alone and surrounded by space—endless space —then this earth is a haven of hermits, and I thirst for sight or sign or mes- sage from any life that lives and multi- plies in this galaxy. A 200-inch ’scope may answer the question and end the quest; may unlock the vaults of heaven and reveal the king to man. “The appeal made to the imagina- STEEL SKELETON OF THE FAMOUS MOUNT WILSON OBSERVATORY. star temperature, for studying distri- bution of atoms in stellar atmospheres and for sounding atmospheric levels. “Added to this, we shall investigate the ebb and flow of pulsating giant stars, some of which are hundreds of millions of miles in diameter. Another study will concern heat from stars and temperatures of moons and planets. Here physicists will take a major role. Using & 100-inch disk, they have been able to determine the heat of a candle 100 miles away. So_far, they have n;xeasured the exact heat from 150 stars.” AKX . BUT what is the greatest performance human ingenuity can saddle on thi® gigantic instrument of telescoptics? If man can succeed in focusing its beams of light on mysteries of life, he will have satisfied an age-old yearning. ‘The most inscrutable puzzle of the uni- hc;_rsn is the origin and distribution of e. tion is the new telescope's most valu- able indirect contribution,” Dr. Adams told his colleagues. “A few weeks ago, a small spiral nebula near one pole of the Milky Way was discovered with the 100-inch instrument. It is very faint and probably one of the most distant objects within the range of modern tele- scopes. It was found moving away from the earth at 2,500 miles per sec- ond, double the velocity of any known “These things stir minds and imagi- nations, and it is to the trained imagi- nation of scientific men in every genera- tion that science owes her greatest ad- vances.” Speaking of imagination, it is the only human quality that feeds on star dust. If a 200-inch disk will nurture a poet of Mr. Keats' caliber or inspire a new Shakespeare, the price of 18,400 pounds of gold will be the cheapest thing Americans ever bought on the open market. Compare man with the awesome, PART OF THE 100INCH TELESCOPE, SHOWING THE PHOTOGRAPHIC APPARATUS, 1 boundless, vastness of unexplored space and he assumes the importance of a horse hair. That he should think, is a One astronomer hints that life on planet is a disease which afflicts matter in_its old age. Should the 200-inch disk approach some solution to the problem of life on Mars, we venture that within 10 years there will be a 1,000-inch reflecting telescope to further the search. Knowl- edge of cosmic life is one branch of pure science that will never have to starve for funds. In the opposite di- rection, the earth’s center, man has al- ready upset his fondest dreams by dis- covering life almost one mile below the earth’s surface. True, the forms are bacterial, but nevertheless it is life, liv- ing, thriving and multiplying. Two years ago & man would be judged in- sane if he had broached the idea of subterranean life. Einstein, the greatest scientist of this age, comes forward now with a few sim- ple formulae and juggles figures so as to make us believe that there is an end to space; all these billions and billions of miles are compressed into a curved vault. What, then, Mr. Einstein, be- comes of starlight after it reaches, sa: ‘| the north wall of space? Ei leaves the question open. But oflers venture an answer. They say, in effect, that starlight turns to solid matter, then to blazing stars; that explains the creation of new sums and solar systems. By similar reasoning, we might be- lieve that it is possible to take electric light and turn it back into coal; take the light energy from auto lamps and turn it into good gasoline and undersell the filling station around the corner. * ok ok X Hm is one of the most spectacular discoveries in the boundless possi- bilities of science—to change solid mat- ter into creative energy, and vice versa. Conversion of coal into electric juice is child’s play compared to this. Talk about magic! Soon a man may walk thfi 'street in the guise of an electric volt! Prof. George W. Ritchey, who de- signed the Mount Wilson Observatory, is America’s crusader in the cause of bigger and better telescopes. When other astronomers peeped ecstatically through 40-inch telescopes, Ritchey was already drawing plans for a 300-inch disk. But with Ritchey size does not count g0 much as rr!.nclplem Grounded on his ideas, it will be possible to make IN 1239 Henry III and Eleanor named their first-born son Edward for Ed- ward the Confessor. His careen began when a politically arranged marriage was planned for him to the half-sister of the Spanish King. This called for adequate provision in matters of lands and titles, and among his father’s gen- erous grants were the lands of his father in Wales. ‘The young prince attempted to estab- lish English law in his Welsh provinces and thereby completely estranged his subjects. Although Edward I and his wife, the Sg;lni.sh Eleanor, had four sons and nine daughters, he was succeeded by the fourth son, the first three sons having died in their youth. About this fourth son, known in his- tory as Edward II, there hag hovered through the centuries that Charming but wholly unfounded story to the ef- fect that when the conquered Welch asked his father for a prince who could not speak a word of English, he offered them such a prince in the shape of his new-born son. The fact in the case is that Edward II was born in 1284 and was not made Prince of Wales until 1301 in the Lincoln Parliament. Out of that error have grown unfound- ed theorles regarding the title of Prince of Wales. A general belief holds that that title is inherited by the eldest son of the Ki of England. The fact of the matter is, however, that the title of Prince of Wales is one of creation only. Since the time of Edward IIT (1312- the first-born son of a British is by primogeniture a Duke of b if in addition he bears the title of Prince of Wales, it is be- cause it has been legally conferred upon ‘The T‘xesuun then naturally arises as to whether the title of Prince of Wales can be conferred upon male heirs of British kings when they are not first- 1 born sons. In the reign of James I it was de- cided that if a Prince of Wales and | Duke of Cornwall should die while his father still was King and leave a son, that son would hold neither title, be- cause he is neither King of England nor the son of a king. “But if the Prince {of Wales should die leaving his brother his heir, the title of Duke of Cornwall would pass to the brother, while the principality of Wales would become merged in the crown. | _Hence there are few instances in British history in which sovereigns who were Dukes of Cornwall did not bear the title of Prince of Wales and who were Princes of Wales and did not bear the title of Quke of Cornwall. In the case of George V, the t King of England, is an illustrat of the points made above. He was the second-born son of his father, the first- born son bel Prince Albett Victor, who died in 1892. In that ir Prince | George was created Duke of York. In 1901 he was created Prince ‘of the eldest son of the living King. this instance the brother, Prince Albert, was not Prince of Wales. Edward VII, his father, held that title until the death of Gueen Victoria in 1901, chemical accident, never- explained~ a mirror 25, 50 or even 100 feet in di- ameter. Ritchey had designed such a 'scope at the University of Paris some time before the International Educa- tion Board determined to grant funds for a 200-inch mirror. “Think of our future telescope in terms of the universe!” exclaimed this missionary. “Plan it, design it, refine it, perfect it with the vision always be- fore us of the stupendous depths which it must reveal and measure. Search the earth over and over, with the aid of conscientious competent experts, for the best site. Demonstrate the prac- ticability of it. Write articles and books for it, lecture for it; argue for it, plead for it. Fight for it the opposition of reactionaries. Interest millions of men and women in it. It will repay us im- measurably for all out efforts, for our lifelong devotion.” Shades of Gallleo and Newtori! No wonder that when the International Education Board, administering Mr. Rockefeller's hard-earned money, an- nounced an appropriation of funds the world took notice. The appropriation was made directly to the California In- stitute of Technology, in Pasadena. A prime purpose of the gift was to assure the new observatory an advantage, in design and construction, of assistance from investigators in the institute and the neighboring Mount Wilson Observa- tor ry. ‘Terms of the gift are so broad as to offer unusual opportunities for securing results of great interest. This can best be seen from the nature of the equip- ment, problems of construction and the group of men assembled to attack them. ‘The new observatory will supplement, not duplicate, the Mount Wilson Ob- servatory. It will comprise two main parts—one the 200-inch instrument, its dome and incidental equipment; the other will be an astrophysical labora- tory on the institute’s campus in Pasa- dena. This laboratory will be equipped with instruments and facilities for studying and interpreting observational results. It wil contain shops capable of constructing instruments used in cmAlJuncflfl;ll wlthuthe 200-inch disk. possible auxiliary of the telesc will be a 40-foot Michelson stellar llgf terferometer attached across the upper end of the tube and arranged so it can be rotated. This would make possible the measurement of star diameters and probably separation of the so-called spectroscopic binary stars. An important addition will be photo- graphic apparatus, using photographic Title of Prince of Wales Thus it becomes clear that the title of Duke of Cornwall is one of inheritance only, while that of Prince of Wales is one of creation. Other titles may be conferred upon the heir to the British ?1‘;:1‘}: be:}lldes filx;c t?trl the Welsh prin- y, the onl e of inher being that of Cornwall. i If, as it has so often been hinted, the present Prince of Wales should resign the crown in his brother’s (the present Duke of York) favor and the resigna- tion be made upon the death of his %E}?' b::l: D‘uke rfi" York, as King, neither the Wel that of Cornwall. ST LUCRETIA HEMMINGTON. Pressure on Muscles. STIMULATING influence of high pressures on the function of the muscles has been discovered as a re- sult of experiments conducted by Dr, McKeen Cattell and Dr. D. J. Edwards of the Cornell University Medical Col- lege. The ordinary effect of pressure on 2 tissue is to stop its functioning. How- ever, when pressure is made on muscles that are completely immersed in a fluid mkmmcle on contracting does more When local pressure is applied to a muscle, injury is readily produced, due to the tissues becoming deformed and the fluid in the tissues being displaced. But when muscular tissue is completely immersed in a fluid, as 1t was in these experiments, the only effect of the pres- sure is a slight change in volume, caused by the pressure acting upon a liquid system, which is what the mus- cle and the fluid it is immersed in form. Under these conditions it was found that the muscle was markedly stimu- lated to greater energy production. great as 1,000 pounds per square inch and found that the higher the pres- sure the greater the stimulation. The average tension developed by the mus- cle under pressure when stimulated was increased one-third over the tension under ordinary air pressure. There was an increase in heat production corre- sponding to the tension changes when pressure was applied. No conclusion as to the practical application of the work has been reached, but it may throw in- teresting light on the mechanism of wmuscular contraction. e Sun Dogs. SOLAR and lunar halos, the rings of iight that sometimes appear to circle the sun or moon at some distance from them, occur only when the sun’s or the moon's rays pass through thin clouds of ice crystals. They are sometimes held to be a sign of approaching bad weather. ‘The colors of the rainbow are present in both solar and lunar halos and in their coronas, although not always dis- tinguishable. In the corona, or small ring close to the sun or moon, the red is outermost, while the innermost color band, violet, touches the orb. In the halo the color scheme is directly re- versed, the red being innermost and the -violet outermosty s plate in its many varieties, sensitized tb light of all wave lengths from ultra- violet to infra-red. The California Institute has appoint- ed four members of its executive coun- cil in general charge of the project. The men named are Messrs. George Ellery Hale, honorary director of the Mount -Wilson Observatory; Robert A. Laboratory; Arthur A. Noyes, director of the Gates Chemical Laboratory, and | in the optical shop are slow. In use, Henry M. Robinson, trustee of the stitution of Washington, Dr. John Technicians Working to Cast 200-Inch Reflector Which Will Increase Our Visual Range to a Distance of Four Hundred Million Light-Years—Reveal a Billion New Stars, and May Answer Question of Life on Other Planets. A small order. Run your car down | existing instruments have been able to stage only a beginning into the un- | Plumbed mysteries of bright spiral neb- Electric Co. has already started its staff working on the problem of casting a 200-inch mirror, and if preliminary ex- periments are successful the contract may not be let out of this country. Think of it! If stars could be brought into laboratories there would be no need for 200-inch disks. Yet star gaz- ing is a science that must be studied in a laboratory. Limitations of telescopes depend on the amount of light that can be brought to focus on the reflect- ing mirror. Give a photographer more light and quartz is not highly liquid, it is a thick-ooze and does not flow so readily as glass. For these reasons it will be very difficult to cast the 200-inch disk as a single mass. But since it is not necessary that the bulk of the mirror be free from bubbles and impurities, the base will be cast in rough. On top a thin, even layer of the purest quartz will be spread, then polished. | The entire instrument will be in- | closed in a steel building with double | walls to reduce the daily range of temperature. The rotating portion may be either a hemisphere or a cylinder. The building'’s dimensions will be 150 feet in diameter and 150 feet high, with | the telescope mounted on a pier 50 feet above the ground. A fundamental question is the ob- servatory site. Aside from human con- venience, there are other factors that deserve consideration, to wit: Pirst is loss of light due to absorption and wave “{asber plates and he can shorten his|scattering in the atmosphere; the sec- | exposures. 1In his case more light is & | ond is the fact that air absorbs light | matter of lenses. Photographic lenses | of wave lengths shorter than a fixed are now rapid enough to catch a bullet | amount; the blurring effect introduced flight. The pupil of your eve is 2|hy wind currents and temperature ght gatherer which is less than an changes. Weather conditions and local ch in diameter. Galileo’s telescope | topography are, therefore, of impor- had glasses 2, inches in diameter; yet a2 saw fully & half a million star; tance in choosing the site. It seems € | probable that zones within a few miles h ooker telescope gathers 160,000 times | of sea level are most affected by these ;5 much light as the human eye.|factors. Hence ideal conditions for an Through its aperture the celestial vault | gpservatory would be a region in which aveals & thousand million stars. atmospheric conditions are uniform. In astronomy, then, the two salient | wind velocity low and in such a cli- difficulties result from the astronomer’s | mate as prevails along the French inability to bring a star into his labora- | Riviera, on the Mediterranean shore. tory or focus sufficient star light on his In recognition of a site's importance mirror. Another difficulty usually en-|the sponsors have sent out scouts and countered is the atmospheric shroud | explorers to investigate Southern Cali- which envelops the earth. Passing|fornia and Arizona. Using small tele- through areas of varying temperature, | scopes, observers will experiment at nu- ing the optical imag?> to dance and blur. light rays are deflected and bent, caus- | merous stations. Photography will play a major role. Thus it would be impossible to carry | because of recent years 90 per cent of | on high-powered astronomic work from | as'ronomical discoverics were made a low altitude. Observatories must | through plates. Photographs will be a carry ort from mountain tops. Withal, | boon to enthusiasts who can't afford a the "astronomer’s greatest obstacle is|trip to California, for we'll be able to | light. Give him more light and he will | pick up our newspaper and see brother unmask the cosmic night. LOWERING THE 100 INCH MIRROR INTO PLACE. son staff, will serve as executive officer in charge of design and construction. An advisory committee has been ap- pointed, consisting of Dr. Walter S. Adams, director of Mount Wilson; Prof. rrederick H. Seares, its assistant direc- tor; Dr. Charles G. Abbot, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; Prof. A. A. Michelson, University of Chicago; Prof. Henry Norris Russell, Princeton University, and Prof. Richard C. Tol- man, Paul S. Epstein and Ira S. Bowen of the institute. This committee will assist the observatory council and Dr. Anderson in determining matters of ‘The contract for casting the disk has not been let, simply because there is| no human experience in casting 200- inch disks. Heretofore the largest disk this_ country was inches, made in Washington by the Bureau of Standards for Ohio Wes- leyan University. There have been no active bids for the job. produced in The investigators used pressures as: comes this problem. s of temperature, a quartz difficulties to the optical architect. to melt quartz; even in its molten state BE TWICE AS LARGE. ONE-HUNDRED-INCH REFLECTING MIRROR AT MOUNT WILSON, » the front surface must necessarily be r exposed to night air. Sihce glass con- |81 astronomer sces 13::. Ehac Mk ¢ i s ducts hzaml%wly,dnd‘tslan“flgx: on m_top e <3S igo' o ‘HROUGH courtesy of Carnegie In-| becomes chilled an: i e mirror. | = The effect of temperature range be-‘:)};:g‘ug l:zpnlégl:\'c .hn.s mflcsmr A. Anderson, member of the Mount Wil- | tween day and night may be eliminated | rate ! Canopus as he looked 60,000,000 years A telescope with a 200-inch mirror ' 880, when dinosaurs laid eggs on what will have n.p primary focal length of is now Rue Pennsylvania. Consider | about 55 feet. Its efficiency will be ex- | this: If astronomers on Canopus’ plan- | traordinary in the light of past experi- | ets have as much ingenuity as our ence. The mirror will collect about |astronomers and their telescopes have 1,000,000 times as much light as the |sufficient magnification, they will be human eye, and, with allowances made | 8ble to photograph these same dino- for losses in the telescope an estimate | S3urs in the very act of laying eggs! of 700,000 should be conservative. Iis|This theme is worthy a poem of epic surface will be about four ‘:Ilfi)es h&'fir proportions. than the present Mount son . Stars of tho twenty-fifth magnitude wili | €W worlds to conquer. No field of re- be in reach of photographic plates, search has made such rapid pmzr'ess which means that such a star seen at |88 astronomy and—happy thought!— a distance of 41,000 miles would have i endeavor. An American astronomer "‘BQ" ltcx?emglsné nn.iggd:rod :;l—;]:l ec&:mgé mapped the Milky Way; another Yan more than 1-500,000 of an inch above | kee discovered the brink of our Galax: Millikan, director of the Norman Bridge | or below other portions. As a result, (2nd told of others so.far away th’ final stages of polishing a large mirror light years are as days in the life o ‘Through telescopes man may look for Americans have been foremost in this this world. Peeping through a modemh.teheeopr all those years thr ver second. Fach series of TV tions serves only to impress upon 1 how conservative we have hitherto be- in estimating time, distance and v locity. ik * x Tm!umwexmnwzmx mon highway—call it a heave boulevard—along which star grour ~lusters, globules and spiral nebulae a traveling. Stars parade down tb hroad ' avenue like swarms of bee Along the grand march of celesti- hosts some stars go off on short d ‘ours and others meander back ar forth, but the gemeral direction i meintained. And- life—there are two planets ! cur tiny solar system that may ha bor the tenacious spark. It has bee r‘lzowad th'.;:z Mars and Venus are ¢ situat living things may reason | ably subsist in their environs. | and water vapor have been | Mars’ atmosphere, although in- than is found in our owr As Mars’ atmosphere is so rare ar dry, it is unsuitable to retain heat - nig! By midnight, the temperatur to 40 degrees Cent. High’ organized life would be excluded b such conditions, but Arctic types migh conceivably live there. Seasona changes in color seem to point to Mar tian vegetation. On Venus. there seems to be no lacl of appropriate temperature, or of it: uniformity. It receives about 1.4 as much heat as our earth. Hence, tropi- cal temperatures might be found on Venus’' south and north poles. The planet holds a thick atmosphere, in the form of heavy clouds, making it difficult for us to view the planet's real surface. Astronomers do not believe Venus rotates rapidly, like the earth or Mars. It may even present the same face to the sun at all times, because its ro- tation and revolution periods are iden- tical. If this is so, the planet has a hot face and a cold face. On Venus. by keeping the mirror tightly closed | there may be such a thing as eternal during. pdsyume in a well i;:sulnedd light and eternal darkne cover, but there is no means of guard- ing against abrupt changes of tempera- | Sermon on astronomy. Dr. Charles G zfige 8becween successive nights. The | Abbot, secretary of Smithsonian Insti- larger the mirror the more difficult be- | tution. points it out: ess. There is a mighty moral behind this “The aspect of possible life on Mars and Venus should yield place to ap- preciation of the value of astronomy F'.'SED quartz, or silica, which is|to broaden mental outlook, vanquish nothing more than common sand, | fear and allay superstition. While yet has an expansion rate only one-fif-|vast masses of stars were unknown, teenth as great as glass. A stick of | their nature unrecognized, other gal- fused quartz may be brought to red | axies undreamed of, men regarded the heat, then plunged in ice water without | earth as the central object and them- cracking. Thus, under ordinary ranges | selves beins for whom all things wers disk would | created. have very little expansion and would| “Now, the universe holds such retain its shape even under heat of | grandeur that the earth sinks to the the glaring sun. Although harder than | dimensions of a speck, and we cannot glass, quartz is said to offer no unusual | but accept an attitude of wholesome humility. At the same time, the con- The smelting process, however, is |sciousness of having achieved already what worries technicians. A tempera- [ so great command of nature, and so ture of 1,450 degree C. is necessary | considerable kndwledge of her mysteries, tempers humility with elation.”