Telescope Reveals Ice Caps on Mars

1920

Question as to Whether Place Is Inhabited Is Declared Beyond Human Solution

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sending wireless messages to Mars and Venus, and the possibility of projecting a rocket to the moon, are subjects of recent speculation which have excited keener interest in the solar system.

"Mars always challenges interest," says William Joseph Showalter in a communication to the National Geographic Society.

"Its day is about the same length as ours, but its year is nearly twice as long. Although astronomers generally take less interest than laymen in the surmise as to whether the other planets and stars are inhabited, since they, more than laymen, realize that that is a problem that must in all human probability remain unsolved, the question is more often asked about Mars than any other planet.

Venus' Day 224 of Ours

Venus was an unusually interesting object in the sky during July of last year. Not again until February, 1921, will it appear as bright and fair in the evening sky. It has phases like the moon, and these can be seen even through a good field glass. Its day is believed to be the same length as its year, which is 224 of our days.

"It is quite generally believed that Mars has ice-capped poles. The telescope reveals white spots at the poles that have every appearance of being like our ocean Polar region. They advance toward the equator in winter and retreat in summer. In the summer of 1916 Pickering, who, with Lowell, has led the school of astronomers who believe they can see canals on Mars, said that he found the white caps stretching farther down toward the equator than he had ever seen them before.

He said that if there was any connection between the weather of Mars and that of the earth, the winter of 1916-17 would be the coldest in many years. And it was. May it yet be possible to do long-range weather forecasting on the earth by studying the waxing and waning of the ice-cap of the South Pole of Mars?