Life in Oilier Worlds Richard A. Proctor. 



47 



away and the tune fitting for lifo would bo smaller. So 

 the changes vve have, to Hud life- oil them is smaller. 

 Upon the earth we find millions of years that life was 

 possible, and nilllloua >f years before and after. In the 

 satellites perhaps we liavo only to deal with thousands 

 of years. Tin- re- fore, taking the present time, we find the 

 chances very much reduced, because tho interval when 

 lite is possible is very lunch smaller proportionately than 

 hpri'. You see the largerof Jupiter's moonsisalarge body. 

 Still you recognize that those small orDs could not re- 

 main so Ions the abode of life. Even if supplemented 

 with the heat of Jupiter, only one. of thorn can possibly 

 be Inhabited at tho present time, and probably not even 

 one of them is so. You see you must go back into tho 

 past or into the future to tind tho time. Hero is a curi- 

 ous relation of the satellites of Jupiter which is well 

 worth noting. In tho uppermost picture you will see 

 all tlie three satellites in a straight line. The lower 

 picture shows them iu a different arrangement. You 

 eee they must circle around like the hour hand, the 

 minute hand, and the second hand of a clock; so they 

 have a certain orderly motion that brings them time and 

 asaiu into a straight line. They are so adjusted that 

 they will continue this forever. 



THE SATURNIAN SYSTEM. 



Now that picture will pass, and we shall have a picture 

 of the planet Saturn. There you have a picture of 

 the planet Saturn. I conceive that this planet is 

 doubtless intended to support life, and afterward 

 to be a scene where life will exist; but still I feel that it 

 is not so now. We have these enormous belts, with signs 

 that the. atmosphere changes in shape. It seems to flat- 

 ten at the poles and bulge out at the equator, and 

 these must be of such enormous extent as to 

 render life impossible on tho ring planet. It 

 s an orb still too active to be the abode 

 of life. Another picture will show you the changes, 

 in which also you will notice how large a portion is 

 bidden from the sun's rays by the belt. That dark mark 

 is the shadow cast by the belt, and on all the planet that 

 is behind it there is this great dark shadow. Let us 

 inquire whether that arrangement is such as to accom- 

 modate the wants of living inhabitants. On this part of 

 the planet where there is Summer, there Is no shadow 

 of the ring, but where the Winter is there is no sun. 

 Therefore the cold, if there is no inherent heat, of that 

 Winter, instead of being moderated by some effect of 

 the ring, or heat reflected from it, is enhanced by it. 



If wo are to believe that all the orbs have been in- 

 tended to support life, in this ring we have a family of 

 orbs. It is made up of a multitude of minute satellites. 

 No astronomer has seen them, but this dark portion ha-\ 

 been said to be due to the fact that there wo see througj 

 the ring between a number of small satellites. That 

 view might he accepted if that was the case. Peirce 

 and Bond of your country and Maxwell of my own 

 country have shown that if it was a solid, it would have 

 been broken up and been thrown in fragments on tho 

 surface of the planet. Now a ring made up of small 

 satellites could possibly exist, and the thought is sug- 

 gested that they are intended to bo the abode of life. 

 If we take Dr. T. Sterry Hunt's view, we can hardly 

 refuse them to be tho abode of life, of animal lifo and 

 vegetation. Then thero would be accidents all the 

 time, a series of collisions, producing a widening of the 

 ring. So you seem to see these multitudinous collisions 

 may result in a constant destruction of life. 



Here you will see disturbances in the equatorial belt. 

 You will see with the aid of the great power of the tele- 

 scope, great cloud-like masses. Changes of color have 



been recognized in them. A milky white color had 

 changed to a ruddy color, to different shades of ruddi- 

 ness, and agiiin back to the original white. We seem to 

 see signs of internal activity of the, planet ; that the sur- 

 face below is of a red boat; that tho planet below tho 

 cloud layer is glowing with a red heat. I think we, may 

 safely say that both tho planets Jupiter and Saturn are 

 still glowing with ruddy surfaces. This picture shows 

 the length of tho Saturnian year. These are the shapes 

 shown when tho planet is looked at through the tele- 

 scope. It gradually opens and closes in thi* manner 

 and these changes require for their completion 29 

 years, or thereabouts. I think 1hero again wo 

 have the thought that the planet cannot 

 he the abode of life. We know that behind the ring, in 

 that portion on which that black shadow rests, we 

 should lind Hie coldness of death. Now we will have a 

 picture of the planet wilh the ring withdrawn and the 

 great shadow shown. It grows wider and wider, spread- 

 ing out, not with a rapid change, but taking seven and a 

 half years to pass to this last appearance. Then it 

 slowly passes back into its former state, taking nearly 

 seven and a half years to do so. It takes nearly 15 

 years to go through these, changes. When you consider 

 this enormous shadow you must think there is not the 

 adaptation to hying creatures which we recognize aa 

 necessary. Here, on this earth, we find the most per- 

 fect adaptation between the requirements of living 

 creatures and the planet itself. What creatures are 

 there living here who could exist on that planet in thia 

 long Winter? I have calculated that in some places in 

 the latitude of this part of America, of Madrid and 

 Rome in that latitude, there would be an eclipse lasting 

 seven of our years. Therefore we seem forced to the 

 theory that Saturn is not now the abode of life, nor in- 

 tended to be for millions of years, but among its satel- 

 lites there may possibly be a different condition. But 

 there again we find bodies so small that the chances are 

 very small that this is the time when life is existing 

 there. 



BARRENNESS OP TIME COMPARED WITH THAT OF SPACE. 



These views may appear at first tight* somewhat new 

 and startling, and the thought especially of the enor- 

 mous waste that exists may occur to many, but it must 

 be remembered that one of the great results which sci- 

 ence teaches us is that we are over and over again mis- 

 led by the want of knowledge. If then we look at the 

 whole of the solar system and find nothing to lead to the 

 belief that any one of these great orbd is inhabited, 

 there is nothing in that which reflects upon the wisdom 

 of the Creator. When we pass from our earth and tho solar 

 system to other systems in the infinity of space, what 

 opinion are we to form ? I think the same general 

 opinion : Our solar system is the abode of life, because 

 our. earth is inhabited. A question arises here: Has 

 our solar system been continuously the abode of lifo? 

 When it began on earth, had there been life in any 

 other planet 1 When it ceases on enrth, will any other 

 planet cease to be inhabited ? This earth is passing to 

 its end, and when life has passed away from it the solar 

 system will be a scene of desolation, with no life upon 

 it, and then will come the time when the next satellite 

 will be tho abode of life, and so on for the future as in 

 the past. 



The time during which life has existed on tho solar 

 system, has only been this short time or that short time, 

 separated by enormous intervals when there was no 

 life. I think if we take the analogy of space, compare 

 space with time, the analogy will be a true one. As one is 

 inconcei vable,so is the other. And what do we learn about 



