ARE THERE OCEANS IN OUTER SPACE? 



faithful servant — our sure defence against our solar 

 system's greatest menace, subjected as it is to the in- 

 cessant bombardment of the sun's rays. It is not an 

 immediate threat, like the atomic bomb. But although 

 the menace of the latter may well be cancelled out and 

 removed by international understanding, there is nothing 

 that mankind can do, ultimately, against the mightier 

 menace of aridity, which must at last destroy all life on 

 our world, even as it has (most probably) destroyed all 

 life on some of the other planets. 



Our sun has now lived approximately half its normal 

 lifetime. Dr. Allan Sandage, astronomer of the Carnegie 

 Institute (probably the world's greatest authority on 

 this particular subject) has reached the conclusion that 

 before our sun dies — doomed by the accumulated ashes 

 of its fires — it must necessarily compensate for the 

 change in its internal chemical composition by increasing 

 its radius and luminosity. In other words it must expand 

 and brighten if it is to remain stable. This increase in its 

 size and in the power of its activity must, says Dr. 

 Sandage, become far more pronounced and drastic 

 when the sun has consumed twelve per cent of its fuel. 

 Until now it has consumed about six per cent. In 

 another six billion years the sun will appear as a dull 

 red globe in the sky and will be burning out at a tre- 

 mendous rate, declining in brightness until it will die 

 out like an ember in a neglected fireplace. But long 

 before this happens the temperature of the earth's surface 

 must go up until the oceans have boiled away. Having 

 reached a maximum temperature of 158 degrees Fahren- 

 heit, the surface of the world will slowly cool again, but 

 all life will have ceased and another arid and desolate 

 planet will have been created in the Solar Sahara. 



Whether fanciful or factual, such speculation on the 

 future of our world can at least make us realize the vital 

 preciousness of water. A quick survey of the solar system 

 must inevitably deepen that realization. 



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