Dreams of an astronomer

by Camille Flammarion

V. THE PLANET MARS

CHAPTER V
THE PLANET MARS

THE inhabitants of the Earth are at last beginning to take some interest in the sky. Tired of living as blind strangers to their own country, they are beginning to know that the world on which they move about is a planet gravitating round the Sun, and that other sister-planets swing round at the same time in the harmony of the solar system. Mars is now spoken of in public as one speaks of politics and of socialism. In America as well as in Europe, at Buenos Ayres, Mexico, or Caracas, as well as at Paris, Milan, Petrograd, Budapest, and Stockholm, the latest telescopic results are discussed. It is known that this neighbouring planet sometimes approaches the Earth within 37½ or even 35 million miles; that astronomers have their eyes on the planet and that they have observed luminous flashes on it, the explanation of which is puzzling them. People remember that in a certain year, 1877, the planet being in its greatest proximity, straight lines resembling canals were discovered, and that the question of possible inhabitants of this new country and future communication with them has been raised. Questions are put and answers are given, discussions give rise to curious confusions and exaggerations, but the net result is that an interest is created in these high questions which raise us above the vulgarities of ordinary life, and a general knowledge of the universe is advanced. That is the main thing.

The last occasions on which Mars was in close proximity to us were 1897, 1899, and 1909.

This remarkable development of public curiosity is easily explained by the marvellous achievements of contemporary astronomy and the admirable precision of certain results obtained. Unless one has a stone instead of a heart and a lump of fat in the place of a brain, it is difficult not to feel some emotion over the achievements of science. If we declare, for instance, that we know the general geography of Mars better than we do that of our own planet, the listener or reader is at first inclined to be somewhat sceptical. But if we show him, either in a telescope or in a diagram, the snows of the north or south poles of Mars, he will admit that nobody has as yet had a complete view of these regions on the Earth, in spite of the discoveries of polar explorers, and he will be convinced that we do know those Martian regions better than our own poles. That is already a fact of some interest; but we can go farther than that.

It is not only the pole, but the whole surrounding country that is better known on Mars than on the Earth, not only from the geographical, but also from the meteorological point of view. Thus, for instance, we can almost constantly measure the extent of the polar snows, and we find that it varies with the seasons. We see with our own eyes the melting of these snows taking place very rapidly under the light and heat of the Sun, night after night, so to speak, during a summer which is twice as long as ours. The snows disappear almost entirely, and only a little ice remains on a region which we know, and which represents the pole of extreme cold, situated 212 miles from the geographical pole. In spite of the perseverance and heroism of arctic explorers, none of these climatological facts have been witnessed on Earth. It is possible that the Martians are ignorant of their own phenomena if they have been unable to reach their poles. Still, since their poles are free at the end of the summer, they are much better able than we to explore their polar regions. We may say that in general the meteorology and climatology of Mars are better known than those of the Earth. At the time when you read these lines you do not know, and nobody can tell you, what sort of weather you will have to-morrow. But we do know almost certainly what the weather will be to-morrow, next week, next month, on such and such a region on Mars: if we do not wait till the winter comes, we know that it will be fine. Hardly do we see a cloud between the vernal equinox and the autumnal equinox, neither in the equatorial nor the temperate regions, and hardly even in the circumpolar regions. If we are unable to make a drawing of the telescopic image of the planet, the difficulty hardly ever arises from the Martian atmosphere, but from our own, which is so often overcast or turbid. All the geographical configurations, seas, rivers, plains, covered with vegetation according to the moisture available, water-courses varying with the seasons, canals and oases, are mapped out with precision; we know in advance which country will pass across the field of our telescope; and the period of rotation, as already mentioned, is known to the 100th of a second. It is 24 hours 37 minutes 22.58 seconds. We also know that the Martian year contains 59,355,041 seconds, i.e. 686 terrestrial days 23 hours 30 minutes 41 seconds. But since that planet turns on its axis a little more slowly than the Earth, there are only 668 Martian days in the Martian year. In fact the Martian calendar is composed of two successive years of 668 days and a leap year of 669 days. As in our case, there is no exact number of days in the Martian year. Perhaps their calendar has also been reformed several times without being made perfect. But let us hope that they are not as stupid as we, with our months of 28, 29, 30, and 31 days, and calling the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth month the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth respectively; with our disagreement about dates, Russia only arriving at the 1st of January when the rest of the civilised world has reached the 14th; with our three kinds of days: the civil day which commences at midnight, the astronomical day which commences the next midday, and the naval day which commences the previous midday; we who waited thousands of years before we could fix an exact hour, because we counted from conventional meridians, and the various countries could not agree upon the single meridian. Being probably more advanced than ourselves in its planetary age, Martian humanity is most likely more reasonable and is not mixed up with the littleness of frontiers, dialects, customs, national rivalries, etc. For a long time already, no doubt they form a simple unit. One may also suppose that they do not celebrate their new-year festival and its rejoicings amid the winter frosts, but in the hopeful days of the equinox.

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One of the most curious observations which have been made on this neighbouring planet, or rather which have, apart from the canals, attracted the greatest attention, is that of the luminous flashes. It has been said that these flashes are all seen at the edge of the disc, or beyond it. This is not correct; they show themselves on the line which separates the hemisphere illuminated by the Sun from the dark hemisphere—the line called the “terminator.” They are only seen when the globe of Mars offers a sensible phase, and only along the line of that terminator.

The phenomenon is a slight projection, swelling, or puffing-up of the terminator. It is not a more extraordinary observation than that of the irregularities in the lunar diameter at certain phases: the Sun illuminates, either before its rising or before its setting, the summits of mountains whose bases are still in darkness, and such summits sometimes appear on the Moon as luminous points detached from the disc. Some fertile imaginations have interpreted these flashes as forests on fire or as signals sent out by the Martians. This is going too far. But the possibility of the population of Mars by a human species more intelligent than ours is quite a natural conclusion from the observations. One may also guess without scientific heresy that the canals of Mars are rivers straightened with a deliberate intention of distributing water which has become a rarity over that planet. The astronomers who deny these possibilities show a very poor spirit. But, on the other hand, there is no reason to see nothing on that world but human activity. Among several explanations of observed phenomena one must always prefer the simplest. In the case of luminous dashes on the terminator, the illumination of mountain-tops or clouds by the Sun suffices to account for them.

Doubts were raised concerning this explanation by the height of 200,000 feet found by an astronomer for the elevation of these mountains. I went over the calculation and found only 15,000 feet. These mountains would not therefore be higher than Mont Blanc, and perhaps less. We should also remember that those luminous projections appear every time that the planet returns to the same condition of illumination with regard to the Earth. They were observed in 1890, 1892, 1894, 1899, 1907, 1909, 1911, 1913, etc. The regions where they appear are a sort of island called Noachis, another called Hesperia, and a third called Tempe. According to all appearances, we have to do with high mountains covered with snow and with still higher clouds.

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The epoch at which the inhabitants of Mars can communicate with us has not yet arrived, or perhaps it has already passed away. All cosmological studies agree in presenting this planet as older than ours, since it is farther from the Sun, and as having passed through its phases of astral life more rapidly than we, on account of its smallness and lightness. We cannot pretend to know the forms which living beings may have assumed there; but we cannot imagine, on the other hand, that the forces of nature, being the same as here and exercised under almost identical conditions (atmosphere, climate, seasons, water, vapours, etc.), have been sterilised by a perpetual miracle of annihilation while on Earth the cup of life overflows all round and the generative force of living beings everywhere surpasses continual and permanent production. But whatever may be the forms of Martian humanity, they must be superior to us, for several reasons. The first of these is that it would be difficult for a human species to be less intelligent than ours, because we do not know how to behave and three-quarters of our resources are employed for feeding soldiers.

The second reason is that progress is an absolute law which nothing can resist. If therefore the inhabitants of Mars have passed their infancy, the centuries have brought them to an age of reason, and their present state represents what our race will be in several million years.

A third circumstance is that they are better situated than ourselves for escaping from the heaviness of matter. A given bulk of water, earth, or other substance is only seven-tenths of the weight it is here; 1,000 grammes taken to Mars would only weigh 376 grammes there; and the woman weighing 8 stone would only weigh 3 stone there.

And, finally, the climatic conditions appear to be much more agreeable there.

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Those are all advantages in favour of the Martians. If, therefore, the idea has occurred to them to make signals to us, it is probably not at the present time. There is no reason that they should think of it at the same time as we and should wait for us. Perhaps they tried 200,000 or 300,000 years ago, before the appearance of man, at the time of the cave-bear or the mammoth. Perhaps they addressed themselves to our planet at the time of the Iguanodon and the Dinosaurus. Perhaps they tried again 2,000 or 3,000 years ago. Never having seen any sign of life, they will have concluded that either there are no inhabitants on the Earth, or that they are busy with other things besides the study of the universe and eternal truths. That was true yesterday—and it is true to-day.