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LIFE ON ANEW WORLD IQOOOHMES BICCER THAN EARTH ~ n Tit- ~<® H Jft • kk ■ n il iWjk S n @ ’ O i 1 & ii il <1 11 A■■4k n f t ». w <1 JlfF Px3/ <P •’:!»’'* k .-t M[K : 1J 1 S f < d i '•* ‘-V _ZW?’••... I ” H / l r // <■; p®' -<r' ■■ 'X \,J ~~ i — J- x _r‘rr ! 7 c r a ^! * ° 2> .yr _J Lj^iSj a A y ,<nrft_ yTlb^s -■•■■. k ?< Gigantic Planets, the Captives of Strange Suns, Whose Nightmarish Creatures Live in Air Thicker Than the Ocean Depths Where the Titanic Lies By Professor Garrett P. Serviss, the Distinguished Astronomer. ONE of the most Interesting recent dis- ’ coveries of modern astronomy Is that of the existence of huge invis ible companions to many stars, and still more Interesting is the conclusion that these ex traordinary bodies may be gigantic planets revolving In the light of the stars with which they are connected. If they are planets, they so enormously exceed those that revolve around our sun. In magnitude, that they must be regarded as an entirely different species of worlds than ours. The earth placed be side one of them would be like a mouse be side an elephant, or a trout beside a whale. Even the great planet Jupiter, which Is 1,300 times as large as the whole earth, would be utterly insignificant In comparison with one of these mysterious bodies which has been found revolving around the star Algol in the northern sky. That body is more than a million times as large as the earth. In fact, it is almost as large as the star around which it revolves—although that star is larger than our sun—and yet it Is utterly in visible, except at certain periods -when It passes between us and Algol and thus causes a partial eclipse of its bright companion. Even then It cannot be seen directly, and its form and dimensions are estimated from the amount of obscuration that it causes, its diameter is calculated at about 840,000 miles. W« can get a realizing sense of what this means if we imagine that tremendous world to be a hollow sphere, with the earth placed at its center. Then there would not only be plenty of room for the moon to continue to revolve round the earth, as It now does, at a distance of 240,000 miles, but there would be . a clear space of 780,000 miles, on all sides, between the orbit of the moon and the Inside of the shell of the Brodignaglan planet! The surface of such a planet exceeds that of the earth ten thousand times. The At lantic ocean stretched out upon it, to the same relative size that It is on the earth, would be more than 300,000 miles broad. If it had surface features exactly proportioned to those of the earth, Its loftiest mountains would be from 400 to f>oo miles high, and its oceans from 200 to 600 miles deep! A dis tance corresponding to that between New York and Chicago would be ninety thousand miles long. And, if everything were con structed on the same scale, men would be 600 feet tall, and the giant redwoods of Cali fornia eight or nine miles high! Os course, the force of gravity, or the weight of bodies, must also be enormously increased. If we suppose the mean density of the giant planet to be the same as that of the earth, a body that weighs one pound here weighs about a hundred pounds there, and an average man. having the same size that he has on the earth, would there weigh seven and a half tons. But if bo were 600 feet tall —that Is to say, proportioned to the size of the planet—he would weigh seven and a half million tons. But there are many other interesting calcu lations, all based upon perfectly well known principles, that can be made about the condi tion of things on a world so gigantic as that which accompanies Algol. We may, for in stance, inquire about the state of Its atmos phere. The density and nature of the air surrounding any planet depend upon the force of gravity of that planet. If the planet is very small, the force with which it holds bodies, or gases, upon its surface is propor tionately small Thus we know that a little wold, like the moon, on which the weight of bodies Is only about one sixth as great a* on the earth, is unable to hold permanently under its control any of the light gases which constitute the air that we breathe. The lighter a gas the quicker it escapes, because Its molecules are In more rapid vibration than those of heavier gases. A gas is a sub stance In which the molecules are continually Eying about In every direction, with a speed \ depending upon the nature of the gas, and unless the attractive force of a planet is suf ficient to restrain the molecules of a gas when their direction of flight, happens to be away from the center of the planet, then those molecules, and ultimately the whole of the gas, will escape into outer space. To determine whether any planet is able to hold the gases that make an atmosphere, we find cut, from its size and density, what speed a gaseous molecule, or any other par ticle of matter, would have to have In order to fly directly away from it and never re turn. In the case of the earth this speed is known to be about seven miles per second. If, then, any particle should start away, radially, from the surface of the earth's at mosphere, with a velocity exceeding seven miles per second, it would escape into space and never come back. Now, the molecules of hydrogen have a maximum velocity of vibration exceeding this limit, and, as a con sequence, we find no free hydrogen In the air. But the molecules of oxygen and nitrogen, and the other gases which are found in air, have veloct- -r/f/ ties less than seven y-/ / ///Us miles per second, where- 7/7/1 fore they remain attached /fl/jJjgSS&ffE' ■onuffi cM wdfvfni p to the earth and form an invisible atmosphere around it. On the other hand, a very great planet, like that of Algol, would retain not only the constituents of our air, but also the volatile hydrogen which escapes from the earth’s con trol. and. for all that we know, other gases— If there be any—whose molecular velocity Is greater than that of hydrogen. Thus we see that the atmosphere of so huge a planet must be widely different in Its composition from the air to which we are accustomed. What the consequences of the existence In the atmosphere of a planet of free hydrogen might be it is difficult to guess. We know that hydrogen when mixed in certain propor tions with oxygen will explode with extreme violence at the touch of a flame or an elec tric spark Suppose a planet, like that of Algol, to be surrounded with an atmosphere containing hydrogen mixed with oxygen, and suppose that, owing to some cause,’ the mix ture attains, at some ploint, the explosive ratio and then let a flash of lightning pas' through it! it Is conceivable that the r<- suiting explosion might have the most dread, ful consequence. It is worth while consider, ing whether this may not be the real cause of some of the sudden outbursts of what ar< called "new stars. ’’ Then, too. upon such a planet the densir of the atmosphere would be far greater thax upon earth. Here the air presses with a force of fifteen pounds to the square inch 1 on the companion of Algol—making the samt supposition as before regarding the planet s CnpvrfsM I!M2 *v »m»fban "• rain hi er. Orest Frltsfn Tttebts T?e»erve» density —the pressure would amount to three quarters of a ton per square inch! Now, if it could be supposed that the in habitants of that planet were composed of substances of relatively small density, so that an animal as large as a man would weigh no more there than a man does here, they would almost be able to float in the air, and with comparatively slight aid could actually do so. Aerial navigation would be as easy and natural to them as swimming is to us. This leads us to another consideration. We have thus far assumed that the mean density of the great planet in the Algol sys tem is equal to that of the earth. The prob ability is, however, that its density may not be more than one-quarter of the earth's. This calculation is based both upon observation and upon analogy. The mean density of the sun, which is a body of nearly the same sizs One of the Gro tesque, Flattened Deep Sea Fish, Built to Live in Water No Denser Than the Air on the Great Planet. — ’MBH®’ Z'/w ■ _ \ Hr //' > \ / lUfe. ■ Air ww- \ '4l W 7 t' IF IflW / llr " \- .fW Z i il .& V \’v ' iw / W‘ V ‘ Z ’ ' / \ > / \ ilk. -> il >'lil the . V Inhabitants <■ are nebulous giants to whom a flock of our aeroplanes would be no more than a flock of wasps.” 1 * / \ Z’P / / / \\ / / nO°Z""" \ MoO;I vF/7) W \ E - rtE / wvZZw A Diagram Showing the Enormous Size of the Planet That Floats Around Algol, the De mbn Star. Earth and Moon Could Float Inside It with 180,000 Miles to Spare. Imagine the scene on this er--mous world. If we think of its .nhabitu.. s .r our owi. familiar forms v. - would «es grotesque, crawling • tures like the elephant, flattened to the planet’s surface by the enormous pull of gravitation, man would 'e a weird caterpillar, •-•-a would grow with their bvanche draggr to th or develope balloon-like foliage and the ‘birds’ would be h mtle jlcbes of life flea’ tl. gb the thick air.” j . as that with which we are dealing. Is one quarter of the earth’s density. In that case the total gravitation of the planet would be only 250,000 times greater than the earth’s, and the weight of bodies on its surface would be reduced to twenty-five times their weight here. But even then the pressure of its at mosphere, supposed to be relatively of the same extent as the earth’s atmosphere, would be 375 pounds to the square inch—which ia a much higher pressure than any careful en gineer would dare to put into the best steam boiler. A cubic yard of that air, removed to the earth’s surface and allowed suddenly to expand, would blow a building to pieces like an explosion of dynamite! But we have not yet touched upon all the curious consequences resulting from the grea* size of the mysterious planet near Algol. Assuming that its mean density is one quar ter that of the earth,' and that, consequently bodies upon its surface weigh twenty-five times as much as the same bodies do here, we may reasonably conclude that its inhabi tants, instead of being giants proportioned to the great size of their world, must rather be dwarfs, only a foot or two in height. This conclusion results from the consideration that, if they were as large as the inhabitants of the earth they would be unable to stand up under their immense weight. It would crush them down. On such a planet an aver age man would weigh 3,750 pounds. (This differs from our former estimate of 15,000 pounds, or tons, because we now assume that the density of the planet is but a quarter of the earth’s instead of being equal to it). But could a man of that weight nossiblv stand upright? Apparently, the only way in which locomotion would be possible to the In habitants of such a world would be by mak ing them so small that their weight would be reduced to a point where bones and mus cles could easily support It. This could be accomplished by making the stature of a man about 24 inches. A man of that height on a planet having (at Its surface) twenty-five times the gravitative force of the earth would weigh about as much as a six-footer on the earth and no more. A full-grown elephant, in order to be comfortable, would have to shrink to a height of about four feet or be rattened out like a flounder and move about in that shape. We have spoken o f but one of these great bodies, that which accompanies Algol but in fact many others are known. There is a con siderable number of stars which have huge dark companions that may be regarded as giant planets We become aware of their existence by the effects of their attraction upon the stars. It is even possible, in sue” cases, to calculate the relative size and weight th ese invisible bodies. The one near Algol is, as we have said, about 840,000 miles in diameter while Algol itself has a diame e? of about 1,12u,000 miles. They revolve “2 their common center of gravity in the ex ceedingly brief period of sixty hours and But this is not all. There Is at „ of these giant planetary bodies whiJh f ..ally larger or more maMve? ttai'u? ow sun-reversing the ordinary rule with » v7“ geance. It is the great body XhTch nected with the bright star Casto? in th C ° D ' stellation of the Twins. ’ “ the COD - The arrival of a huge dark body, or stranger plane . in our system, whether it resulted S a collis.on with the sun or not, won d in evitably upset the present planetary svstem The earth and the other planets swirled from their orbits; the existing Saer’ y arrangement would be broken up if the ntruder approached close to the sun the tat ter would burst out with redoubled energies shrivelling up perhaps, the whole reUnue of ts planets like moths in a flame; and the hitherto peaceful worlds, drivina hl ' her . and thither, might destroy oue other in fiery collisions. **