Dreams of an astronomer

by Camille Flammarion

VIII. IDEAS CONCERNING COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE WORLDS

CHAPTER VIII
IDEAS CONCERNING COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE WORLDS

THAT in a future, which is perhaps not very far distant, say in a century or two, the inhabitants of our planet might enter into optical, electrical, or telepathic communication with those of another planet of the solar system is an event which we have some right to expect, though it is not a matter of to-morrow.

About the year 1840 the astronomer von Littrow, Director of the Vienna Observatory, put forward the idea of attempting an optical communication with the Moon. A triangle traced upon the soil of the Moon by three luminous lines each from 7 to 9 miles long would be visible from here by means of our telescopes. We even observe much smaller detail, such as the singular topographical designs noticed in the lunar circle which goes by the name of Plato. Thus a triangle, a square, or circle of that size, constructed by us on a vast plain by means of luminous points, either during the day by the reflection of sunlight, or during the night by means of electric light, would be visible to the astronomers of the Moon, if such astronomers exist and if they have optical instruments equivalent to ours.

The rest of the argument is of the simplest. If we observed on the Moon a correctly constructed triangle, we should be considerably interested. We should ask ourselves whether we had observed wrongly or whether an accidental geographical movement might have given rise to a regular figure. We should no doubt end by admitting that exceptional possibility. But if we suddenly saw that triangle change into a square, and some months later be replaced by a circle, we should then admit logically that an intelligent effect proves an intelligent cause, and we should think with some reason that such figures undoubtedly reveal the presence of geometers on the neighbouring world.

From that position to a search for the reason for the formations on the Moon’s surface and to the question why and with what object those unknown comrades drew those figures would be a short step quickly taken. Would it be with the idea of entering into communication with us? The hypothesis would not be absurd. It would be put forward, it would be discussed, it would be rejected as far-fetched and defended as ingenious. And after all, why not? Why should the inhabitants of the Moon not be more curious than we, more intelligent, of higher aspirations, less stuck in the bog of material necessities? Why should they not suppose that the Earth can be inhabited as well as their own world, and why should these geometrical appeals not be made with the object of asking us whether we exist? Besides, it is not difficult to reply. We are shown a triangle, we reproduce it here. A circle is traced, we imitate it. And so communication is established between the Heavens and the Earth for the first time since the beginning of the world.

Geometry being the same for all the inhabitants of the universe, and twice two making four in all the regions of infinite space, and the three angles of a triangle always being equivalent to two right angles, signals thus exchanged between the Earth and the Moon would not even have the obscurity of the hieroglyphics deciphered by Champollion, and the communication, once established, would become regular and fertile. Besides, the Moon is close by. Its distance of 240 thousand miles is only thirty times the diameter of the earth, and many a rural postman has covered that amount of ground on foot during the course of his life. A telegram would arrive there in a second and a quarter, and light takes the same time to cover that distance. The Moon is a celestial province joined to our destiny by Nature herself.

Up to now we have noticed nothing on the Moon which might lead us to suspect the existence of a thinking humanity inhabiting that small celestial island. Tet the astronomers who specially observe our satellite and who study its singular aspects with attention and perseverance are generally of opinion that that heavenly body is not as dead as it seems. We must not forget that in the present state of optical science it is difficult in practice to apply to the study of the Moon a magnification greater than a thousand times. To see our satellite a thousand times closer than it really is still leaves it at a distance of 240 miles. Now, what can be distinguished at such a distance?

It is certain that mysterious variations actually occur on the surface, notably in the arena of the amphitheatre of Plato as mentioned above. What is also certain is that the lunar globe, 49 times smaller than the earth and 91 times lighter, exerts on its surface a gravitational attraction six times less than that which exists at the surface of our own planet, so that an atmosphere analogous to the air we breathe would be more rarefied and difficult to perceive from here. It is therefore not surprising that this neighbouring world is so different from ours. Besides, seen from a balloon 3 or 4 miles above ground, the Earth appears deserted, uninhabited, as silent as an immense cemetery, and whoever arrived from the Moon in a balloon could ask himself even at that small distance whether there were any people in France or any sound in Paris. Such at least is the impression conveyed to me by my aerial voyages.

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The cold and deathly aspect of our pale satellite was not encouraging for the realisation of the original project of the astronomer J. von Littrow, and soon afterwards, forgetting our nearest neighbour, the imagination of some physicists was bold enough to consider the planet Mars, which is never nearer than 35 million miles, but is the best known of all the countries of the sky and which offers so many points of resemblance with our world that we should hardly feel exiled if we were to transport our household gods thither. The aspect of Mars indeed tends to comfort us after that of the Moon. One could imagine oneself in some terrestrial region. The seasons, summer and winter, autumn and spring, days and night, mornings and evenings, waters, clouds, snows, atmospheric variations, plains adorned with various vegetations—all these things present many resemblances to our own world. The years are longer there since they last 687 days, but the extreme variations of the seasons are about the same as with us since the inclination of the axis is about the same. The days are also a little longer, since the diurnal rotation is 24 hours 37 minutes 23 seconds, but the difference is not great. And you will notice that this is all known with great precision, that diurnal rotation, for example, is known to within one-tenth of a second, or we might even say one-hundredth of a second.

When, on a fine starry night, we examine this world through the telescope, when we see the polar snows which melt in the spring, the finely marked continents, the mediterraneans with long gulfs, the eloquent and varied geographical configuration, one cannot help asking whether the Sun which illuminates that world as it does ours shines on nothing living, whether those rains fertilise anything, whether that atmosphere is breathed by any living being, and whether that world of Mars which rolls swiftly through space resembles a railway train travelling empty without either goods or passengers. The idea that the Earth where we are could swing round the Sun as it does without being inhabited by any creature whatever appears so absurd as to be hardly worth thinking about. By what permanent miracle of sterilisation would the forces of nature which act there as they do here have remained eternally inactive and barren?

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It is therefore conceivable that one might apply to Mars the plan originally proposed for the Moon. The distance of that planet is such that although it is much larger than the Moon in volume, it appears 63 times smaller when it is nearest to us. Yet one may understand that a telescope which magnifies 63 times enlarges Mars to the size of the Moon as seen with the naked eye, and that a magnification of 630 gives it a diameter ten times larger than that of our satellite.

Yet if ever the attempt is made to put any sort of project of communication between us and Mars into practice, the signals would have to be carried out on a much vaster scale. It would not be triangles, squares, circles, of several miles which would have to be constructed, but figures of 70 miles or more, always supposing (1) that Mars is inhabited, (2) that these inhabitants occupy themselves with astronomy, (3) that they have optical instruments analogous to ours, and (4) that they carefully observe our planet, which to them is a brilliant star of the first magnitude, the morning and evening star, and in fact the brightest heavenly body.

Is this fourfold hypothesis acceptable! If that question were put to the vote of the citizens of the Earth, without asking the opinion of the Central African savages or the South Sea Islanders, but only the numerical majority of the European population, one may safely wager that they would not even understand the question, for the majority of mankind does not know that the Earth is a planet and that the other planets are Earths.

And then there is sound common sense which reasons so justly on account of the excellence of its education. “We are,” it says, “without doubt the most intelligent beings of creation. Why should other planets have the honour of being enriched by intellectual excellence such as ours? Can we even admit the existence of beings similar to ourselves?” No doubt one could perhaps remark that the most gifted nations of the Earth do not know how to conduct themselves, that their intelligence is chiefly exercised in devouring each other and in ruining themselves, that they mortgage the future like blind fools, that thieves are not uncommon, nor even murderers. But apart from that we are obviously very superior beings, and it is hardly likely that on any of the myriads of worlds which gravitate in the immensity of space nature should have given birth to intelligences of our calibre.

Why therefore should we attempt an optical correspondence with the planet Mars? If it is inhabited, the inhabitants have not our powers, and our trouble would be thrown away. Even should they see our signals, they would never think that they were meant for them.

Also, we shall never attempt it.

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But is it possible that the inhabitants of Mars have already commenced and that it is we who do not understand?

According to geological computations, the minimum age of the Earth as a habitable sphere since the formation of the first dry land is 20 million years: 10 million 700 thousand for the primordial age, 2 million 300 thousand years for the secondary age, 460 thousand years for the tertiary age, and 100 thousand for the quaternary age. Man has existed on Earth since the end of the tertiary age, that is over 100 thousand years. Astronomical instruments were only invented in 1609, and Mars was not observed nor recognised in its principal geographical details until 1858. Complete observations of Martian geography only date back to 1862. The first detailed triangulation of the planet, the first map comprising the smallest objects visible in the telescope and measured by micrometer was only commenced in 1877, continued in 1879, and completed in 1882. It is therefore only a few years since Mars entered into the sphere of our practical observations. I may add that only very few of the Earth’s inhabitants have seen it in all its details, one of the foremost of these being the astronomer Schiaparelli, the Director of the Milan Observatory.

According to the most probable cosmogonic theory, Mars is older than our planet by several million years and much more advanced along its path of destiny than ours. The inhabitants of Mars may have been signalling to us for 100 thousand years. Nobody on our planet would have suspected it. It is only since the seventeenth century that astronomers may have thought, not of discovering such signals, for their instruments were not sufficiently powerful, but of the possibility of some day seeing a little more of what happens on that neighbouring world. In fact it is only a few years that we have had any hope of distinguishing these minute details, not to speak of explaining them.

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Now, this is what happened. The map of the planet Mars was made with infinite care by the able astronomer of Milan. One sees on this chart in several regions certain points where the observer has found the presence of luminous patches shining like snow illuminated by the sun. That these luminous patches are due to snow is not likely, because some are seen near the equator in the tropics as well as at higher latitudes. Nor does it seem likely that they are the tops of mountains, for they are close to the seas and arranged symmetrically to certain straight canals. Besides, several of them seem to trace out meridians and parallels of latitude, and on seeing them one involuntarily thinks of Geodesic signals. One sees triangles, squares, and rectangles.

That these luminous points should have been established by engineers or astronomers on Mars is not my idea. That the 60 great rectilinear parallel canals which we admire on that planet and which establish communication between the Martian seas should be the work of the inhabitants of this neighbouring planet would be presumptuous to imagine. That is not the conclusion I would arrive at. Nature is so rich in procedure, so varied in its manifestations, so multiple and so complex in its effects, and often so strange and original in its play, that we have no right to limit its mode of action.

But it is none the less true that if the inhabitants of Mars wished to send us any signals, that method of procedure would be one of the simplest and it is in fact the only one which has been devised among ourselves. They could not do better than thus dispose luminous points at certain distances according to geometrical figures. For instance, one finds the intersection of the 267th meridian with the 14th degree of northern latitude a region limited by points situated at distances from each other corresponding to Amiens, Orleans, and Le Mans. If the inhabitants of Mars wished to send us signals they could not have chosen better places for their luminous stations.

I am far from saying that this is so and that there is any intention in this arrangement. Yet if it were so, it would be we who did not understand.

And there is nothing surprising in this. The inhabitants of the Earth take no interest in the Heavens. Ninety-nine per cent, of them among the 1,500 million Earth-dwellers do not know what they walk on and have no conception of the reality. They are busy with eating, drinking, and reproducing themselves, with amassing various objects, with patriotically devouring each other, and with dying. But as regards asking where they are or what is the universe, that is no concern of theirs. Their native ignorance suffices them. They live in the middle of the Heavens without knowing it and without the slightest enjoyment of intellectual happiness which some select spirits find in the recognition of truth.

The inhabitants of Mars, on the other hand, being more ancient than ourselves, can be much more advanced in the way of progress and can live an enlightened and intellectual spiritual life. We are safe in supposing that they know our world much better than we know theirs, and that our astronomical science is only child’s place beside theirs. If, therefore, the people of Mars, living perhaps for a long time already in the harmony of a peaceful and intelligent life, had thought of attempting to send signals to the Earth, with the idea that perhaps our planet is also inhabited by an intellectual race, then since they have never received any answer from us they will have concluded that we are not on their level, that we do not busy ourselves with the matters of the sky, that astronomy and optics are not very advanced among us, and that in all probability we have not yet emerged from clumsy material instincts. Is their conclusion very far from the truth?

Perhaps also the Martian academies declare the Earth uninhabitable and uninhabited: (1) because it is not absolutely identical with their planet, (2) because we have only one Moon whereas they have two, (3) because our years are too short, (4) because our sky is very often overcast, whereas theirs is almost always clear, (5 and 6) for a thousand other reasons, each as cogent as the rest.

As we have seen above in the chapter on Mars, one often notices besides the luminous points we have mentioned certain more extensive brilliant projections which appear on the terminator and which must be caused by the reflection of the rising or setting sun on snowy peaks or on clouds which are certainly not signals. However this may be, of all the bodies which blaze in the skies on a clear night, and particularly of all those bodies which gravitate with us round the Sun, there is one which engages with a captivating interest the attention of astronomers. It is the singular little world of Mars. But it is not so easy to communicate with it as was supposed by that good lady of Pau, Madame Guzman, who left a legacy to the Académie des Sciences in the shape of a prize of 100,000 francs to be given to the first person who should discover a means of communicating between the Earth and another world—with the exception of the planet Mars, because it would be too easy! So true it is that on our planet the best intentions are often mixed up with a few grains of folly.

After steam, the electric light and the telegraph and the telephone, the discovery of unmistakable signs of the existence of humanity inhabiting another region of our solar archipelago, would that not be the most marvellous apotheosis of the scientific glory of the twentieth century? And cannot wireless telegraphy be some day applied to this problem? Electro-magnetism is an immense invisible world still insufficiently explored. Let us wait, observe, and study.