Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1880 — Why the Moon does not Turn on Her Axis. [ARTICLE]

Why the Moon does not Turn on Her Axis.

The observations of astronomers of -past and present time prove that ths4noon has no atmosphere, that whe is barren of this life-giving fluid which we breathe, and is probably destitute of animal or vegetable life. All planneis that revolve on their axis have an atmosphere or gaseous fluid surrounding them; which is subject to expansion or contraction by heat or the absence df heat It is said that the planet Mars has an atmosphere thousands of miles in depth. It makes its diurnal revolution in about twenty-four hours. Its axis is inclined from a perpendicular about as the earth’s is. Because the moon does not turn on her axis is proof to roe that she does not possess an atmosphere of any noticeable depth. It the moon had an atmosphere like the earth’s, I believe she would move about her axis in a rotary way. If the moon had a deep atmosphere, and the beat, she received from the earth would expand that atmosphere, as the heat from the sun expands the earth’s atmosphere, I believe, in each a state of natnre, the moon, while she continned her coarse in her orbit aronnd the earth, on through that ocean of ether into whioh she plunges, would begin and oomiuue a revolution on her axis. *