Evening Star Newspaper, May 17, 1929, Page 29

| ————————————— DECLARES VENUS ROTATES ON'AXIS Dr. Coblenz Presents Conclu- sion at Meeting of Variable Star Association. | not long has been in dispute among astronomers. It is the earth’s neare: neighbor among the planets, of approx mately the same density, temperature, size and condition of development, but |with a much heavier atmospher | Venus, rather than Mars, has ! called the fittest abode of life in the | solar system, next to the earth. ‘The dense atmosphere of the planet, | havever, causes it to be covered by a | heavy layer of clouds through which telescopes cannot penetrate to detect any evidence of life on the surface. It | has been maintained that Venus docs rotate on its own axis like the earth, but always turns the same face toward the sun. This would mean that the bright side toward the sun would be intensely hot while the dark side, BY THOMAS R. HENRY. The planet Venus, like the earth, is | rotating on its axis, although the rate | mayv be very slow, This conclusion was presented at the ennual meeting of the Variable Star Association at the National Academy of Sciences Building today by Dr. W. W. Coblenz of the Bureau of Standards as the result of fine measurements of the temperature distribution of Venus wWith the thermocouple. The question of the rotation of Venus ! never heated up, would approach the absolute zero temperature of space. Measures Heat Kadiation. By the latest improved thermocouple Dr. Coblenz has been able to measure the heat radiation from definite spots on the surface, including the fringes between the dark and light areas. The thermocouple is a junction of two very fine wires of different elements, such as silver and bismuth or silver and Platinum. Light from a star is alfowed 1o fall on the junction. which is placed in the eyepiece of a telescope and gen- r g9 THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, FRIDAY, MAY 17 !rrn'tt an _electrical current which is "'hcrv the atmosphere is so light that measured by a galvanometer to which | the radiation measured, for all prac- !indorsing a new the solid | with 13 instead of 12 menths was given | to a committ proposal been recel | omers fields and that it was su some religious opposition bee: terfered with Sabbath and the date of uperstition about 13 being an unlu number, said Dr. Edwin E not without ulty of using it in arithmetical calcu- | ver: The heat of | tical purposes, is that of surface. Temperatures in the equatorial the amount of the current. The mech- | and temperate zones. he showed. appear | anism is so delicate, Dr. Coblenz said, above zero centigrade and changes can | that it would measure the heat of a | be noted on the east and west limbs, candle 50 miles away, were it not for | due to the rotation of the planet. Thus the absarptiva of the atmosphere. | the surrise zone becomes heated up b By use of a very small thermocouple | the, sun as it whirls out of the deac’ it 1o possible to measure elreumscribed | €0ld of the Martian night. when there | lanet’ y is no atmosphere to hold the heat aveas on a pianet’s surface. Thus, Dr. | - rLphari B rliond Coblenz safd, astrophysicists no longer | Feccived during the previous day. speak of the temperature of Mars, but| Measurements on Saturn, he s of the temperature of definite areas on | show that the main body of the plane! Mars, although the planet itself is about | is somewhat hotter than the famous 30,000,000 miles away. Venus is rings which are so attractive to as- 000.000 miles away. The thermocouple, | tronomers. ~ What is measured, how- Di. Coblenz said. measures the radiation | ever, is merely the outer surface of the om the outer cloud surface of | heavy atmosphere rather than the ac- and gives no information of |tual surface of the planet. The same, believed by | said Dr. Coblenz, holds true for Jupiter. some &stronomers to be mostly liquid.| The delicacy of the thermocouple Althwmgh the rotation as measured by | itself. Dr. Coblenz s: id,_ probably is {he termocouple record of changes as | about as great as is practical, and fur. {he dark fringes come progressively | ther improvements in detecting the ra into the sunlight would appear quite |diation of distant bodies will come in | slow, Dr. Coblenz said, this may be due | telescopic_improvements. He predicted | to a pecultarity of the axis of Venus|thau eventually astronomers might be n from the carth and not be ac- |able to detect the presence of dark | arcas in the heavens thousands of ligh vears away which now are invisible in the most powerful telescopes by means | | of the differences in heat radiation. | the wires are attached. the planetary body is calculated from o | Venus what lies on the surface, ng differences, he pointed out are found in the temperature of dif- ferent latitudes and longitudes on Mar convenient After some discussion the question of | lations the use of 13 always would re- | variations in distant stars can be| I sult in & fraction. The 13-month calendar, it was point- | ed out, provid end of each by workers in some other|as “Year day on what ordinaril | and “would result universal calendar pointed 0 favorably it w s not ived ron- to arouse 1se it in- of the ster. ‘The | the continui cach Slosson, basis, because of the diffi- fons periods of calendar calcu- Charles Smithsonian Institution, told the ama- | teur astronome: ‘ small and are hard to measure bo- While 12 divides easily into | cause there is nothing with which its brightness can be compared | checked against the brightness of other sters of the same magnitude. for one day at the ear, which would b2 known This always would fall | would be Sunday one less Sabbath Spanish Flyers Off for Cuba. NEW ORLEANS, May 17 (#).—The Tropical Radio here announced that the Spanish aviators, Jimines and Iglesias, took off from Guatemala City for Ha- vana at 7:41 am, Central standard time, today. . but its variations nnl S b Poland's forests cover nearly 20.000.- 000 acres, of which the state owris about Slight one-thi LONDON, teday in the Weybridge. n itself is a variable star, Dr. G. Abbot, sccretary of the ¥ Hendon race PLANE CRASH KILLS TWO. & | Body of Pilot Scholfield Burned Bey: ond Recognition. May 17 (A .—Pilot for the King's cup. THE “NATIONAL’S” Eric Scholfield and his mechanic were killec crash of their airplane near The plane caught fire when it hit the ground and the body of the pilot was burned beyond recognition. In 1926 Lieut. 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