Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 1912)
a 1- ite: Omaia Sgndm?Bee Magazine R4oe CopyrJsbt, ltll. bjrth Star Company. Great Britain Rights Referred. j ' at ODD FACTS ABOUT MARS MAES is the fourth planet from the sun, and the nearest to our earth. It is called the red planet, and its color is thought to be due to vegetation. Its size and density are less than ours, and a man weighing 200 pounds here would only weigh seventy-five pounds there. Mars has atmosphere, seasons, land, water, storms, clouds and mountains, , Mars has two moo ' s "' only 3,700 miles away and revolves around it in seven and a hut nouru ukc a " ingstar. The day.on Mars is half an hour longer than ours, and its year contains 687 days. Professor Lowell has counted 437 "canals" on Mars, and 186 "oases," The canals vary in length from 250 miles to 3,000 miles. , : ' A man on Mars would be able, to drive a golf ball fifty miles. , The strength of a man on Mars would be eighty-three times greater than on the earth. . t The atmosphere of Mars consists principally of carbonic acid gas. The water supply of Mars is very slender, and its utilization is the greatest problem of life there. ' ; M" rARS Is the nearest pfanet to' os, the one which we can see the most plainly and the first one which we shall be, able to , visit when ' science makes a Journey ; beyond our atmosphere possible. i Mars, moreover, Is- proved by a tronomy to possess air atmosphere and to be capable of supporting r life In some term. . , , These facts make It natural that ; scientists and writers should specu . late upon the character of the life upon Mars. It must, as yet be spec t nlationt; for" our , nieans of seeing only enable ' us to distinguish ob . jecta several miles in extent upon -. the planet. - "'! " , ,: ; - . , Many interesting theories about , tuc life, of Mars have been put forward, but all of them have been open to some objection.: Professor , Percival Lowell, of the Flagstaff , Observatory , in Arizona, has argued ' tbut the so-called canals of Mars are vast engineering works, and con sequently that the inhabitants who , built them were of great intellectual , development The scientific novel ist, H. a. Wells, has built an ex tremely interesting story on the basis that the Martians are -octopus-like creatures, without bony struc- ture, but possessed of highly devel oped brains., A common assumption of ninny . speculators has been that the Martians 1 are extremely at tenuated creatures, because the slight pressure of gravity on the surface of the planet would, favor this form. Now a new and exceedingly inter esting theory concerning the life on Mars has been put forward by Professor William Wallace Camp t bell, of the great Lick Observatory, , California. suggests that all , life on Mars has taken a , vegetable form. "'! "'- This theory is one of ; the - most plnuslble. tlint. lms been put forward. It has the support of all : the facts about Mars that have been , scientifically established and It avoids many of the improbabilities r involved in other theories on the same subject. ' ; , The vegetation theory rests pri marily on the fact proved by spec troscopic analysis that there is an enormous proportion of carbonto acid gas in the atmosphere of Mars, which would make animal life of N5a and torrid rones, WV which would still fia, ' bloBsom If water- ed. , Here we may , , note one, of the; strongest arguments In favor of the . vegetation theory of life. Interesting Theory of Pr6; Campbell, . of Lick Observatory , That Explains the "Canals, "Eyes," and Other Puz zlinii Problems of Our Neighbor Planet that it would be almost Impossible for man-like creatures to live there. It Is most likely then that vegeta tion Is the only life. : From our knowledge of life on the earth, It is quite conceivable that the - ' highest type . of in telligence might dwell in a plant, as plants that we know possess more or less intelligence, and the fact that; they may not possess the high est kind is due to conditions on the earth, which do not , . exist on Mars. The original germ of life on earth was neither animal nor .. .vegetable. Many stages of develop ment passed before the two forms of life became separated. Low In. the scale of life we now see many forms of which It cannot be said posi tively that they are . But there are some plants on earth which do possess a kind of nervous system, and it is quite ' reasonable to believe that they would have developed an intelli gence at least equal to that of man If conditions had been favorable. Such conditions have prevailed on Mars. Chief among tham is an at mosphere very favorable to plant v life and very unfavorable to animal life. There are on the earth many carnivorous plants which though unmistakably vegetable in form pos sess many of the powers of animals. These plants Include the butcher plant, pitcher plant, the sundew, the butter wort and many other forms. They range from plants that eat insects to those that are capable of devouring birds and small mammals.,. The pitcher plant, for instance, has ft heavy flesh leaf ten inches long. With the spiked point of the leaf it strikes a rat, numbing it with the poison it contains. jThen the leaf folds dver the animal and it is absorbed into the body of the plant and digested. " Other plants, such as the spider- body over the planet, growing in ' bright orange colored forms. As the heat departs these forms die down and hide their life In the soil till the following season. This pro duces the appearance of "canals" to us. The reason these canals have such a regular form is that the vegetation follows the lines of reg ular cracks which occurred in the crust of Mars when it was drying up. The vast intellect of Mars is oc cupied with the problems of gain ing subsistence . from the . dying planet and then with Investigation! of the boundless universe that liei within its sight - . - The white spot which we some times see on Mars is not a pile ol snow,, but really, an "eye." Sup ported on a tenuous flexible trans parent column, it can raise itseli miles above the surface of th planet and watch the operations ol its vegetable body at any point That the movements of this piaa etary eye should have escaped ob servatlon from the eye is not sup prising.- The canals on Mars have only been seen by a few astrono mers, and many excellent scientists the kind known to the earth . ex ceedingly difficult, If not Impossible, while it would greatly fawir the development of vegetation. Before considering this theory further, we ' must bear in mind a few of the proved facts about Mars. It has atmosphere, seasons, land; water, storms, clouds and moun tains. It also rains and snows on Mars, as it does with us. Great white patches appear periodically upon its surface. These may be accumulations of snow and tney have also been called "eyes; Their in appearance. They extend toward ,: A- nature will be discussed later. When Mars approaches nearest to the earth It Is seen to have a bright red color and sometimes looks like a red lamp in the sky. It has been suggested that the vegetation for the most part is yellow or orange instead of green, as with us, thus giving the planet its color. . .Mars has two moons, 1 the near est of which Is but 3,700 miles away and revolves around the planet in seven hours and a half, showing all the phases of our moon In one night. The density and size of Mara are less than those of the ' earth, and consequently a man who weighed 200 pounds here would only weigh 75 pounds up there. The atmosphere and moisture of Mars are very slight and the in habitants, if there be any, must And life a dif ficult problem there. The water is confined entirely to the poles, where It is deposited annually In the form of a thin lawyer of snow or hoar frost only to melt away again with the advent of Summer. - Ages ago lite on Mars must have concentrated itself on the problem of devising some means whereby the melting water of the polar parts might be con ducted to those arid re gions of the temperate and torrid rones, "' 'T ""VV 17; ? h which would stiii ' V-k - ' ' 1 ? 9 - i . y c r Kp . blossom if water- ; V .r - - tf 1-" note one of the; : S ' 5 S&XffiiHj JH V T V , strongest arguments in favor of the ' 'ri"iu TVA- N.h 1 n ?. 3 vegetation theory of life. .V '1 Professor Lowell has argued that ' ' kJl?WS' v the canals of Mars, first discovered . " . ?v V- ,r Jrj jOSmW S " ' M M it VTira il i Mulling"' inr by Professor. Schiaparelll, of Milan, but long considered optical illusions by many astronomers, are the Ir rigation works of the inhabitants. The canals are singularly artificial I I X ti the eauator from the poles and cover the planet like a fine netting. Each canal is the shortest dis tance between two points and In variably runs to a point called ' an oasis," where It meets other canals not ' In haphazard fashion, but ac cording to some plan. . : The "canals" vary in length from 250 miles to . over 3,000 miles, a length that is astonishing when it is considered that the diameter of Mars Is only 4,220 miles. All told, Professor Lowell has plotted 437 of these canals and 186 oases. It was Professor Pick ering, a close associate of Professor Lowell, who first saw these oases. The canals of Mars appear and disappear with the seasons. In other words they slowly creep down from the poles each Spring and slowly retreat with the approach of Winter. If the canals are artificial in origin, this phenomenon would appear to mean that the Martians are busily engaged in digging stu pendous canals, only to fill them up again every year. Professor Pickering Ingeniously avoided this embarrassing conclu sion by pointing out that we see not the canals themselves, but the vegetation which fringes their banks and thus Indicates their course. Vegetation must grow be fore the canals are visible and must disappear before the canals vanish. Here we can see why the theory that all the life on Mars is vege tation is more probable than any other. Professor Pickering admits that the signs .of life we see are vegetable, but suggests that thev are the work of man-like creatures whom we cannot see. But we know v 4 MA . r, A ,4 r v 1 jKjrr'i , if iff 4 V fx v: iV .: " nve concentrated Here we can see whv tha thnorv " " A U rt Vs'tO ' i v iiki j v vv I Jv' s ! I J A ; : ' : -i-)JWUAWti J"' 'I. tf- ' - zz'- "A vast eye, upon a tenuous, flex ible, transparent neck raises it self high above the surface of Mars and can watch the growth of its vegetable body upon any part of the surface." The Small Diagrams Below Illus trate the Operation of the plan etary eye. The Martian Was Conceived by H. C Wells to Be an Octopus Like Creature Without Bony Structure but Having a Highly Developed Intelligence. Drawing by H. Lanos. The Pitcher Plant Devouring a Rat, an Instance of Plant Life, Possessing Animal Powers. animal or vegetable. When . disease bac- ' terla were first op served it was be lieved that tbey were animal, but now the prevailing view is that they are vege table. Yet they pos sess the power of mo tion generally char-, acterlstlc of animals. One of the great differences between plants and animals is that the former have not a brain and nervous system, which can be com pared to that of the latter. The life of th plant resides In its separate cells and. 'they ire only held to gether by their jux taposition to one an other and not con trolled by a central ; system. wort, possess eyes, which enable It to turn toward the sunlight These . eyes bear a close resemblance to human eyes and It has been proved by photography that they receive images of objects which lie In their range of vision. . These facts indicate the possi bilities of vegetable intelligence. Ages ago. according to the newly advanced theory, all life on Mars took the vegetable form. Animal races then existing were con sciously or unconsciously absorbed into the vegetable races. The vegetable life, 'possessed of true intelligence, then jevolved Into one organic whole in order to ob tain the greatest advantage from the ' limited means of sustenance. Life on Mars is now one vast. In tellect supported by a vegetable, body having its roots in the soil. Such a conception of life resembles the vast being Into which the Budd hists say airmen will be absorbed." As the Bummer comes on the ' huge being on . Mars ' stretches its : denied their existence tor years after they were first observed. They continued to do so until photographs were taken of the canals. The shifting of the "eye" on Mars, al ready observed by our telescopes, may very possibly have been due to a movement on a transparent neck, as described here, the neck itself not being vhiible. The "eye" exercises the functions f watching climattf conditions all over its vegetable to of sending help to parts in need and of con veying external impressions to the great central intelligence. This vegetable body possesses the power of distributing strengJi to its vari ous parts and of devising new means of ' extracting nourishment from the soil and atmosphere. - When not engaged In watching the physical condition of its body, the great "eye" makes observations of the -earth, sun planets, stars and the whole universe. From its vast side it is able to see more and farther than all the telescopes of our earth put together.