IS THERE LIFE ON MARS?

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 96, 6 December 1911, Page 3

IS THERE LIFE ON MARS?

AN ABSORBINGLY INTERESTING PLANET. 'A VARIETY OF OPINIONS. The most widely divergent views are entertained by astronomers in regard to our neighbour planet Mars—some, lik« Professor Lowell, believing that- it is the abode of highly intelligent beings, others, like the great Englisn astronomer Campbell, that it is a total waste of ice. Svante Arrhenius, the noted Swcdisii physical chemist, writing >n the “Deutsche Revue” recently, gave a eompi offensive insight into the various prevail, ig theories and the observation s upon which they are based. He himself holds that Mars is a dead world, where life has long since been extinct—if, indeed, it ever existed at all

Owing to tho famous observations of tKj Italian astronomer, Schiaparelli, us well as the later works of Flammariou (1902) and of Lowell (“Mars as the Abode of Life,” 1909), a lively into rest lias been aroused in the educated world concerning the planet Mars. The popular opinion following itose vriters is that the wondevLl

canals” testify to the existence of a highly-developed order of beings. Mars has light, air, and sunshine, says Flammarion; it seems impossible that a world having all the reciuisites for life should be condemned to be a desert waste. Evidently sentiment plays a part in the French enthusiasms ideas. On the other hand, sober observers have pointed to the fact that the rays of the sun on Mars yield but 43-1' I) of the heat received by rhe earth, so that one is well justified in doubting whether the source of ail vhality is sufficiently strong on the former planet to maintain organic life. Flan n arion that the “canals’’ and the inland seas are the fruitful springs whence tho inhabitants draw their sustenance; Lowell goes so far as to assume that Mars is cu'lavated to the very poles, while others, among them the noted From h physicist Fizeau (now deceased), hold that it is a desert of ice, where the temperature rarely rises above the freezing point.

_ Since the epoch-making introduction of the spectroscope a great number of distinguished astrophysicists have made use of that instrument to discover the composition of the atmosphere of Mars, and particularly whether it contains aqueous vapour. All are agreed that the climate is that of a desert. Assuming that it corresponds to that of Salt Lake City, iv’iic i I’.i.ij be very dose to the truth, the air is saturated at a humidity of 81 per cent., and it follows from this cud other data that the maximum ten ] < rain re of the Martian midsummer may be reckoned at s.3deg. Centigrade (-ll)deg. Fahrenheit). A r.ch vc/hath: life, as assumed by Lowell, seems thv.s out of the question; he, however, maintains his optimistic views as to the climatic conditions. " lie great riddle on the surface of Mars ii the; so-called canals. The popular idea strongly sustained by Lowell ad Flammarion is that they are gigantic works of engineering skill which serve to irrigate the country. This view is incompatible with the severe cold upon, the planet. According in another theory, hut one scarcely known to the general public, those “canals” are fissures on the surface of Mars.