A WATERLESS MOON.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2133, 27 May 1920, Page 1

A WATERLESS MOON.

Astronomers are certain (hat there is no water on the moon. The moon land is a place of the wildest desolation. It resembles nothing so much as a world of burned ashes, interspersed here and there with frozen sheets of-lava.

The first observers, with their poor and imperfect glasses, mistook the dark, smooth areas shown on the moon’s surface for seas, or, at the most, sea beds. When better telescopes were made it was quickly seen that there was nothing of a marine character about them. A similar mistake was also made on Mars. The dark green areas on that planet were minted “seas,” and it was discovered that they were popressions covered by vegetation, and thV true watery regions of .Mars were far away on either- pole. If water .had ever been present, we could liml wave terraces. There is no such thing as a sheet of water for ever as still and untroubled as a mirror, for water is always in motion, with waves ceaselessly tossing oil the surface. Every breath of air set.-, them stir ring, and the swell contain.' 1 ;- long after the disturbing cause has vaui-tuil. The normal process of waves dashing against a edit is to cut mil and undermine the bank at the water's brink, until Ibe top-heavy mass above, deprived of its support, slips in. A bluff above, ti gentle sloping sandy or gravel bank, and a submerged terrace at the shore are invariably the mark of water. Wave terraces are totally absent from the moon, Many craters have a level Hour, suggesting at first a level water bed, bat on closer examination it turns out t" be hardened lava.

The moon has no at mospherc. Without air water cannot condense on .-mch a small globe as I lie moon. As fas; as the water was liberated iron! ilie rocks, it escaped and left toe moon for over. Our satellite today is a. parched and barren desert with no air and ho waiter, and no hope for life in all eternity.