“gemination,” some of the canals appearing as if doubled.
This was first noticed by Schiaparelli, and has been confirmed,
so far as observations can confirm it, by other observers. Different
explanations of this phenomenon have been suggested,
but the descriptions of it are not sufficiently definite to render
any explanation worthy of entire confidence possible. Indeed
the more cautious astronomers, who have not specially devoted
themselves to the particular phenomena, reserve a doubt
as to how far the apparent phenomena of the finer canals are
real, and what the markings which give rise to their appearance
might prove to be if a better and nearer view of the planet
than is now possible could be obtained. Of the reality of the
better marked ones there can be no doubt, as they have been
seen repeatedly by many observers, including those at the
Lick Observatory, and have actually been photographed at
the Lowell Observatory. The doubt is therefore confined
to the vast network of lines so fine that they never certainly
have been seen elsewhere than at Flagstaff. The difficulty
of pronouncing upon their reality arises from the fact that
we have to do mainly with objects not plainly visible (or, as
Lowell contends, not plainly visible elsewhere). The question
therefore becomes one of psychological optics rather than of
astronomy. When the question is considered from this point
of view it is found that combinations of light and shaded areas
very different from continuous lines, will, under certain conditions,
be interpreted by the eye as such lines; and when such
is the case, long practice by an observer, however carefully
conducted, may confirm him in this interpretation. To give
a single example of the principles involved; it is found by
experiment that if, through a long line so fine as to approach
the limit of visibility, segments not too near each other, or so
short that they would not be visible by themselves, be taken
out, their absence from the line will not be noticed, and the
latter will still seem continuous.[1] In other words we do not
change the aspect of the line by taking away from it a part
which by itself would be invisible. This act of the eye, in
interpreting a discontinuous series of very faint patches as a
continuous line, is not, properly speaking, an optical illusion,
but rather a habit. The arguments for the reality of all the
phenomena associated with the canals, while cogent, have not
sufficed to bring about a general consensus of opinion among
critics beyond the limit already mentioned.
Accepting the view that the dark lines on Mars are objectively real and continuous, and are features as definite in reality as they appear in the telescope, Professor Lowell has put forth an explanation of sufficient interest to be mentioned here. His first proposition is that lines frequently thousands of miles long, each following closely a great circle, must be the product of design rather than of natural causes. His explanation is that they indicate the existence of irrigating canals which carry the water produced annually by the melting of the polar snows to every part of the planet. The actual canals are too minute to be visible to us. What we really see as dark lines are broad strips of vegetation, produced by artificial cultivation extending along each border of the irrigating streams. On the other hand, in the view of his critics, the quantity of ice or snow which the sun’s rays could melt around the poles of Mars, the rate of flow and evaporation as the water is carried toward the equator, and several other of the conditions involved, require investigation before the theory can be established.[2]
The accompanying illustrations of Mars and its canals are those of Lowell, and represent the planet as seen by the Flagstaff observers.
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| Fig. 2. |
Satellites and Pole of Mars.—At the opposition of Mars which occurred in August 1877 the planet was unusually near the earth. Asaph Hall, then in charge of the 26″ telescope at the Naval Observatory in Washington, took advantage of this favourable circumstance to make a careful search for a visible satellite of the planet. On the night of the 11th of August he found a faint object near the planet. Cloudy weather intervened, and the object was not again seen until the 16th, when it was found to be moving with the planet, leaving no doubt as to its being a satellite. On the night following an inner satellite much nearer the planet was observed. This discovery, apart from its intrinsic
- ↑ For limits of this theory and Lowell’s view of its inapplicability to Mars, see Astrophys. Jour., Sept. 1907.
- ↑ Prof. Lowell’s theory is supported by so much evidence of different kinds that his own exposition should be read in extenso in Mars and its canals and Mars as the abode of life. In order, however, that his views may be adequately presented here, he has kindly supplied the following summary in his own words:— “Owing to inadequate atmospheric advantages generally, much misapprehension exists as to the definiteness with which the surface of Mars is seen under good conditions. In steady air the canals are perfectly distinct lines, not unlike the Fraunhofer ones of the Spectrum, pencil lines or gossamer filaments according to size. All the observers at Flagstaff concur in this. The photographs of them taken there also confirm it up to the limit of their ability. Careful experiments by the same observers on artificial lines show that if the canals had breaks amounting to 16 m. across, such breaks would be visible. None are; while the lines themselves are thousands of miles long and perfectly straight (Astrophys. Journ., Sept. 1907). Between expert observers representing the planet at the same epoch the accordance is striking; differences in drawings are differences of time and are due to seasonal and secular changes in the planet itself. These seasonal changes have been carefully followed at Flagstaff, and the law governing them detected. They are found to depend upon the melting of the polar caps. After the melting is under way the canals next the cap proceed to darken, and the darkening thence progresses regularly down the latitudes. Twice this happens every Martian year, first from one cap and then six Martian months later from the other. The action reminds one of the quickening of the Nile valley after the melting of the snows in Abyssinia; only with planet-wide rhythm. Some of the canals are paired. The phenomenon is peculiar to certain canals, for only about one-tenth of the whole number, 56 out of 585, ever show double and these do so regularly. Each double has its special width; this width between the pair being 400 m. in some cases, only 75 in others. Careful plotting has disclosed the fact that the doubles cluster round the planet’s equator, rarely pass 40° Lat., and never occur at the poles, though the planet’s axial tilt reveals all its latitudes to us in turn. They are thus features of those latitudes where the surface is greatest compared with the area of the polar cap, which is suggestive. Space precludes mention of many other equally striking peculiarities of the canals’ positioning and development. At the junctions of the canals are small, dark round spots, which also wax and wane with the seasons. These facts and a host of others of like significance have led Lowell to the conclusion that the whole canal system is of artificial origin, first because of each appearance and secondly because of the laws governing its development. Every opposition has added to the assurance that the canals are artificial; both by disclosing their peculiarities better and better and by removing generic doubts as to the planet’s habitability. The warmer temperature disclosed from Lowell’s investigation on the subject, and the spectrographic detection by Slipher of water-vapour in the Martian air, are among the latest of these confirmations.”—[Ed.]
