IS THE MOON ON FIRE ?

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 160, 10 July 1886, Page 1

IS THE MOON ON FIRE ?

A French Astronomer Claims to Have Seen a Red Glare Near the Crater Aristarohus— lt is Possibly an Active Lunar Volcano.

Tiie "Courier de 1 ' Illinois " contains the announcement that a wall known French aatronomer, has observed what he believes to be fire, on the surface of the moon. The phenomenon was first seen by M. Guillaume at JPeronnes, and has been verified by the astronomer of the Paris Observatory. They saw a reddish brightness on a spot near the object known as Aristarchus, which is a crater formation nearly fifty miles in its longeet diameter, and situated in the northwest quadrant of that side of the moon which is turned towards the earth. The position of this interesting object is roughly indicated by the white spot on the accompanying diagram. As seen in the astronomical telescope, ib will be well out toward the edge of the lower right quarter of the disk. Thoee who wish to examine it with an opera-glass will do well to note that the telescopic view is an inverted one. With the opera-glass the spot should be seen in the upper left quarter, aa indicated in the diagram Aristarchus cornea into view two or three days before the time of full moon, and remains in the sunlight from that time till the moon is so near the sun aa to be a matter of little interest to the ordinary observer.

The nights when the sunlight falls on Aristarchus are not, however, those when that spot and its surroundings can be watched with the hope of fiuding out whether or not the announcement is a mistake or a hoax. The region in question is already known to selenographera as the brightest spot on the whole of the lunar disc, and under favourable conditions, with a large instrument, it shines like a piece of burnished silver. Hence the possibility that the observers referred to have been mistaken. But, if not then any little augment of light would be inappreciable in competition with the flood of eun illumination. The time to look for it is from a few days after the new moon to three days before the full, when the spot is on the unilluminated part of the disc Doubtless several scores of telescopes and many hundreds of opera-glasees will be turned upon our nearest neighbour in the ekies during the week beginning with Sunday, June 6th, for the purpose of ascertaining if there really be any such change observable on the "face of the moon. There can be no question that such a change, if ary there be, is a stupendous one, or it could not be perceived, even faintly, at the enormons distance of some 240,000 miles which ordinarily separates us from our companion in the annual journey round the sun. And the phenomenon would be all the more interesting, as the astronomers have for many years been of the opinion that the moon is a died- out world. She is generally spoken of as entirely destitute of air and water on her surface. The fact is that we know she has not an atmosphere which would balance in our barometers a column of mercury more than the thirtieth part of an inch in height, or say about onethousandth part as much as if forced up into the tube by the earth's atmosphere. V\ ithin that very small limit she may possess an envelope of air, for all that we know to the contrary, and some recent observations favour the idea that the mcon has some such a film of atmostphere surrounding her, at least on that side which is turned toward us. Of course water is an impossibility in the absence of air, as it i 8 kept in the liquid condition only by atmospheric pressure. Remove that and the water would vaporise to form an atmostphere of vapor which would be easily recognised by us Hence, on the most favourable supposition, any form of organic life with which wo are acquainted could not exist to start a fire there, and it is difficult to see where such a fire could obtain the oxygen necessary to support combustion. It may, therefore, be safely conluded that the reddish gl«re of light; claimed to have been seen by the French astronomers cannot be a signal intended by the Selenists to open up communication with us. The only conceivable explanation of the phenomenon would be that it is a fire of volcanic origin, an eruption of red-hot matter from be , n eath the \\ u nar crust, which is ! not yet solidified to the point where such' an outbreak can belong only to the dead past. The fact, if it be one, will gain additional interest from the observation of the crater Linnaeus, which is thought to have undergone extensive changes within the last lew years. The fact that «ur Mount JEtna is now in an unwonted stage of activity, after outbursts in the Straits of Suhda and in the northwest part of our own Continent, is a suggestive one in connection with the alleged exhibition of lunar activi'y. Can it be that both bodies— the earth as well as the moon— are acting in response to some grand agency, of comic origin, and passing through a period of convulsive throes akin to that which marks the phase of greatest activity in the formation of sun spots t There may be more in such an idea than a casual glance at the matter will reveal, but it is too early in the history of philosophical research to reason very closely on the subject.

The Government have ordered from Home 2,000 Martini Bnfield riaea, but onlysoo of these can be forwarded to the colony within the next *ix months. It is intended to diatribute these among the best shots/ and future instalments among, next best shots in various corps of the colony 1 .