LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS

Taupo Times, Volume IV, Issue 196, 28 October 1955, Page 8

LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS

Must Be Rather Common, i Says Astronomer » The interest centred to-day on the - pro.blems of future space-travel, and • the speculations as to life on other L worlds which have been intensified in • the past few years by the controver- : sial subject of "flying saucers," give to the layman added interest in the ! works of modern astronomers. A new book by Ered Hoyle, one of . Britain's leading astronomical writ- ; ers, "Frontiers of Astronomy," is based on long periods spent at Mt. Palomar Gpnservatory, California, where he studied important new material revealed in recent years by the observatory's 200-inch telescope. Mr Hoyle is in no doubt about his answer to the question : Is there life on other planets? He estimates that the number of

planetary systems like our own existing in the Milky Way must be about 100,000 xnillion, and adds, "living creatures must, it seerns, be rather common in the universe." Amplifying this statement be continues : "The great majority of stars are slowly-spinning stars like the sun, stars that presumably have undergone the same process of slowing down that occurred in the case of the sun. Accordingly, we inay expect planetary systems to have developed around the majority of the stars. It has been stated by some that only as a result of a series of prodigious accidents were conditions made suitable for the development of life on the earth. "The present theory is in opposition to this view at every point. It was not an accident that the small planets were formed nearest the sun. Nor do the compositions of the planets seem in the least to be a matter of chance. Rather do I tliink it would be somewhat surprising if anytliiug very different had occurred in any of the other planetary systems. Ev^n the origi'n of life is beginnlng to look

as if it were no accident." Mr Hoyle's theories of the earth and the universe are based on the inos't up-to-date researches, made possible by the alliance of the new science of atomic physics to tbe old art of astronomy. He comes to tbe conclusion, from the exami nation of stars and meteorites, that the core of the earth is a molten mass of 89 per cent. iron, 19 per cent. nickel, and about one per cent. titanium, chromium, manganese, cobalt, copper and zinc. The temperature at the core, to keep these elements molten without at the same time melting the rocky mantle around them, must be 5000 d«grees centigrade, he argues. Venus is the planet inost closely comparable with the earth, the two being built out of almost ideutical material. But there is one big difterence. Venus has no water, because it is nearer to tbe sun, and an excess of oil remains. In previous writings, Mr Hoyle expressed the opinion that the thick white clouds which perpetually cover Venus were made up of hne particles of dust. He has now changed that theory. Ile tliinks that the clouds may consist of drops of oil. In other words, Venus is draped in a kind of perpetual smog. Turning to the moon, Mr Ployle contemptuously dismisses the old theory that the craters were formed by lunar volcanoes. They were the giant dents made, he says, by various bodies in space crashing into the moon and exploding. The first explorers of the moon will find it a depressing place. Througli their space helmets, they will see round them only a monotonous grey, because without an atmosphere to filter them, the dead'ly ultra-violet rays of the sun destroy all colour. This same ultra-violet light leads Mr Hoyle to his theory of the origin of life. To this astronomer, who measures history by thousands of million years, even the arnooba of the