From what has been said, it is very evident that neither Hansen,
Chambers, Proctor, nor any of those whose names have been mentioned
by the last, in connexion with the withdrawal of water into the body
of the moon by absorption, while cooling and condensing, had ever
thought of the possibility of air and water having been removed by
centrifugal force from the side of the moon turned towards the earth.
That it should not have occurred to Hansen seems passing strange,
seeing that he had conceived the idea of their possible existence on
the hemisphere turned away from the earth, which could hardly fail to
make him think of how they got there, and could exist only there; and
the only explanation of his not having perceived the true cause seems
to be, that his thoughts were hampered by a sort of confused notion
that the moon actually rotates on its axis once for every revolution
it makes around the earth, that being, as it were, one of the dogmas
of astronomic belief, handed down from some great authority of times
past, and never properly inquired into.
We do not want to question the suggestion, that the absence of any
atmosphere investing the moon is a simple and necessary consequence of
the kinetic theory of gases--though we see that a good deal could be
argued against it--as we do not consider it to be necessary--neither
the questioning nor the theory. We have demonstrated clearly, how both
air and water could be removed from the side of the moon constantly
shown to us, and that is sufficient for our purpose both now and later
on; besides it would appear that the moon really has some sort of an
atmosphere somewhere.
Following up the quotation, made at page 39, from Prince Kropotkin's
article in the "Nineteenth Century" as being the latest information we
have on the subject, we are told that "a feeble twilight is seen on our
satellite, and twilight is due, as is known, to the reflection of light
within the gaseous envelope; besides it has been remarked long since
at Greenwich that the stars which are covered by the moon during its
movements in its orbit remain visible for a couple of seconds longer
than they ought to be visible if their rays were not slightly broken as
they pass near the moon's surface. Consequently it was concluded that
the moon must have an atmosphere" ... and:
"The observations made at Lick, Paris, and Arequipa, fully confirm
this view. A twilight is decidedly visible at the cusps of the
crescent-moon, especially near the first and last quarters. It prolongs
the cusps as a faint glow over the dark shadowed part, for a distance
of about 70 miles (60"), and this indicates the existence of an
atmosphere having on the surface of the moon the same density as our
atmosphere has at a height of about forty miles."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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