Venus Called Only Habitable Planet.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 21 August 1914, Page 2

Venus Called Only Habitable Planet.

Professor Walter Maunder, the dimnent astronomer, has revived the speculation as to whether the heavenly bodies are, inhabited or not by publishing some careful calculations as to their temperature. He shows that the sun's temperature is more than 5,000 C, while the moon, owing to its lack of atmosphere, is at night at about the temperature of liquid air. Mercury, who always turns one face to the sun, must be far hotter than anything of which we .have any knowledge, while Mars must always be at below freezingpoint. The more distant planetsJupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—are so far away from the sun that they receive scarcely any heat from him, whij,g, they are s,till in a nearly incandescent condition, and, according- to Prof. Maunder, have probably no solid nucleus. Venus,

however, has a mean temperature of 69 degrees C, and at the equator one of 95 degrees C, so that, allowing for the difference in pressure, water should boil at its equator. This would send forth such vast quantities of steam that the clouds would cut oft much of the sun's heat. Our authority denies that any planet but Venus can be habitable, and as to Venus he reserves judgment. Tor protoplasm, the universal constituent of all living matter, cannot live permanently below 0 degrees C. nor above 100 degrees C. Therefore the sun, Mercury, and the distant planets would he too hot for it, while Mars and the moon would be too cold, leaving only Venus as a possibility.