File:Astronomy for amateurs (1904) (14597184548).jpg

Identifier: astronomyforamat00flam (find matches)
Title: Astronomy for amateurs
Year: 1904 (1900s)
Authors: Flammarion, Camille, 1842-1925 Welby, Frances A. (Frances Alice) tr
Subjects: Astronomy
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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ich our trade-winds would be the lightest ofbreezes. Yes, mystery still reigns upon this adjacent earth,and the most powerful instruments of the observatoriesof the whole world have been unable to solve it. Allwe know is that the diameter, surface, volume and massof this planet, and its weight at the surface, do not differsensibly from those that characterize our own globe :that this planet is sister to our own, and of the sameorder, hence probably formed of the same elements.We further know that, as seen from Venus (Fig. 39), theEarth on which we live is a magnificent star, a doubleorb more brilliant even than when viewed from Mer-cury. It is a dazzling orb of first magnitude, accom-panied by its moon, a star of the second and a halfmagnitude. And thus the worlds float on in space, distant sym-bols of hopes not realized on any one of them, all atdifferent stages of their degree of evolution, repre-senting an ever-growing progress in the sequence ofthe ages. 129 ASTRONOMY FOR AMATEURS
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Fig. 39.—The Earth viewed from Venus. When we contemplate this radiant Venus, it is diffi-cult, even if v^e can not form any definite idea as to heractual state as regards habitation, to assume that she 130 THE PLANETS must be a dreary desert, and not, on the contrary, to hailin her a celestial land, differing more or less from ourown dwelling-place, travailing with her sisters in theaccomplishment of the general plan of Nature. Such are the characteristic features of our celestialneighbor. In quitting her, we reach the Earth, whichcomes immediately next her in order of distance, 149million kilometers (93,000,000 miles) from the Sun, butas we shall devote an entire chapter to our own planet,we will not halt at this point, but cross in one step thedistance that separates Mars from Venus. Let us only remark in passing, that our planet is thelargest of the four spheres adjacent to the Sun. Hereare their comparative diameters: The Earth = i. In Kilometers. In Miles. Mercury 0-373 4>7

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