STEAM ON THE MOON.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 December 1921, Page 4

STEAM ON THE MOON.

NEW YORK, October 10. In an article appearing in Popular Astronomy, describing the results of two years’ study of the moon. Professor William Pickering, of Harvard University. challenged the assumption of astronomers that the moon is dead and that nothing can live on its surface. Ho declares his conviction that markings are often observed on the face of the planet actually representing areas of vegetation. crops of this vogotntion grow every day on the moon, noeording to Professor Pickering, a day on the moon being 14 of our days doting which it is lighted by the snn. Tn the craters with which the surface of the moon is studded, saws tho professor, there is water and a supply’ of heat, and he lias observed steam issuing from them. When the moon emerges from its period of darkness he believes the sun’s rays quickly warm up the surface of the moon and start mushroomlike growth in the crater fields. An observer is actually able t-o distinguish patterns growing in the fields. Patches of vegetation, lie adds, “shift positions ove r the surface like the canals on Mars. Tn both eases the surface of discoloration has changed its place. “Tliis cannot be due to mineral or inorganic force. T.ifc, therefore, exists on both planets. Thus we find a living world at our very doors, where life in some respects ijOsembles that on Mars lmt is utterly unlike anything on our own planet world.”