SIGNALLING TO MARS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1189, 27 December 1913, Page 4

SIGNALLING TO MARS.

M. I,e Coulte, the distinguished Swiss astronomer who is at the head of the Geneva Observatory, has just made public his researches conceruing the plauet Mars, which he has been studying for the last five years. Although very reserved in his language, there is little doubt that he thinks that the | Martians have been signalling to the earth. During, his long observations —70 nights were thus spent in 1909 —M. L,e Coultre observed a series of “luminous apparitions" of a bluish white colour resembling the light of powerful electric arc lamps or searchlights. At first these lights appeared for seconds and then disappeared, but in the following weeks the intervals lasted minutes, and were always from the same spots. During the past six or seven years the same lights have been seen by astronomers in different parts of the world who have put them down to atmospheric or volcanic origin. M, Le Coultre does not agree with this theory. He will continue bis researches from January next on the summit ol the Saleve, 4200 U. high, above Geneva, where a new observatory has just been completed.