IDEAS CONCERNING COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE WORLDS
THAT in a future, which is perhaps not very far distant, say in a
century or two, the inhabitants of our planet might enter into optical,
electrical, or telepathic communication with those of another planet of
the solar system is an event which we have some right to expect, though
it is not a matter of to-morrow.
About the year 1840 the astronomer von Littrow, Director of the
Vienna Observatory, put forward the idea of attempting an optical
communication with the Moon. A triangle traced upon the soil of the
Moon by three luminous lines each from 7 to 9 miles long would be
visible from here by means of our telescopes. We even observe much
smaller detail, such as the singular topographical designs noticed in
the lunar circle which goes by the name of Plato. Thus a triangle, a
square, or circle of that size, constructed by us on a vast plain by
means of luminous points, either during the day by the reflection of
sunlight, or during the night by means of electric light, would be
visible to the astronomers of the Moon, if such astronomers exist and
if they have optical instruments equivalent to ours.
The rest of the argument is of the simplest. If we observed on the
Moon a correctly constructed triangle, we should be considerably
interested. We should ask ourselves whether we had observed wrongly or
whether an accidental geographical movement might have given rise to a
regular figure. We should no doubt end by admitting that exceptional
possibility. But if we suddenly saw that triangle change into a square,
and some months later be replaced by a circle, we should then admit
logically that an intelligent effect proves an intelligent cause, and
we should think with some reason that such figures undoubtedly reveal
the presence of geometers on the neighbouring world.
From that position to a search for the reason for the formations on
the Moon’s surface and to the question why and with what object those
unknown comrades drew those figures would be a short step quickly
taken. Would it be with the idea of entering into communication with
us? The hypothesis would not be absurd. It would be put forward, it
would be discussed, it would be rejected as far-fetched and defended
as ingenious. And after all, why not? Why should the inhabitants of
the Moon not be more curious than we, more intelligent, of higher
aspirations, less stuck in the bog of material necessities? Why should
they not suppose that the Earth can be inhabited as well as their own
world, and why should these geometrical appeals not be made with the
object of asking us whether we exist? Besides, it is not difficult
to reply. We are shown a triangle, we reproduce it here. A circle is
traced, we imitate it. And so communication is established between the
Heavens and the Earth for the first time since the beginning of the
world.
Geometry being the same for all the inhabitants of the universe, and
twice two making four in all the regions of infinite space, and the
three angles of a triangle always being equivalent to two right angles,
signals thus exchanged between the Earth and the Moon would not even
have the obscurity of the hieroglyphics deciphered by Champollion,
and the communication, once established, would become regular and
fertile. Besides, the Moon is close by. Its distance of 240 thousand
miles is only thirty times the diameter of the earth, and many a rural
postman has covered that amount of ground on foot during the course
of his life. A telegram would arrive there in a second and a quarter,
and light takes the same time to cover that distance. The Moon is a
celestial province joined to our destiny by Nature herself.
Up to now we have noticed nothing on the Moon which might lead us
to suspect the existence of a thinking humanity inhabiting that
small celestial island. Tet the astronomers who specially observe
our satellite and who study its singular aspects with attention and
perseverance are generally of opinion that that heavenly body is not
as dead as it seems. We must not forget that in the present state of
optical science it is difficult in practice to apply to the study of
the Moon a magnification greater than a thousand times. To see our
satellite a thousand times closer than it really is still leaves it
at a distance of 240 miles. Now, what can be distinguished at such a
distance?
It is certain that mysterious variations actually occur on the surface,
notably in the arena of the amphitheatre of Plato as mentioned above.
What is also certain is that the lunar globe, 49 times smaller than
the earth and 91 times lighter, exerts on its surface a gravitational
attraction six times less than that which exists at the surface of our
own planet, so that an atmosphere analogous to the air we breathe would
be more rarefied and difficult to perceive from here. It is therefore
not surprising that this neighbouring world is so different from ours.
Besides, seen from a balloon 3 or 4 miles above ground, the Earth
appears deserted, uninhabited, as silent as an immense cemetery, and
whoever arrived from the Moon in a balloon could ask himself even at
that small distance whether there were any people in France or any
sound in Paris. Such at least is the impression conveyed to me by my
aerial voyages.
* * * * *
The cold and deathly aspect of our pale satellite was not encouraging
for the realisation of the original project of the astronomer J. von
Littrow, and soon afterwards, forgetting our nearest neighbour, the
imagination of some physicists was bold enough to consider the planet
Mars, which is never nearer than 35 million miles, but is the best
known of all the countries of the sky and which offers so many points
of resemblance with our world that we should hardly feel exiled if we
were to transport our household gods thither. The aspect of Mars indeed
tends to comfort us after that of the Moon. One could imagine oneself
in some terrestrial region. The seasons, summer and winter, autumn and
spring, days and night, mornings and evenings, waters, clouds, snows,
atmospheric variations, plains adorned with various vegetations--all
these things present many resemblances to our own world. The years are
longer there since they last 687 days, but the extreme variations of
the seasons are about the same as with us since the inclination of the
axis is about the same. The days are also a little longer, since the
diurnal rotation is 24 hours 37 minutes 23 seconds, but the difference
is not great. And you will notice that this is all known with great
precision, that diurnal rotation, for example, is known to within
one-tenth of a second, or we might even say one-hundredth of a second.
When, on a fine starry night, we examine this world through the
telescope, when we see the polar snows which melt in the spring, the
finely marked continents, the mediterraneans with long gulfs, the
eloquent and varied geographical configuration, one cannot help asking
whether the Sun which illuminates that world as it does ours shines on
nothing living, whether those rains fertilise anything, whether that
atmosphere is breathed by any living being, and whether that world
of Mars which rolls swiftly through space resembles a railway train
travelling empty without either goods or passengers. The idea that the
Earth where we are could swing round the Sun as it does without being
inhabited by any creature whatever appears so absurd as to be hardly
worth thinking about. By what permanent miracle of sterilisation would
the forces of nature which act there as they do here have remained
eternally inactive and barren?
* * * * *
It is therefore conceivable that one might apply to Mars the plan
originally proposed for the Moon. The distance of that planet is such
that although it is much larger than the Moon in volume, it appears 63
times smaller when it is nearest to us. Yet one may understand that
a telescope which magnifies 63 times enlarges Mars to the size of the
Moon as seen with the naked eye, and that a magnification of 630 gives
it a diameter ten times larger than that of our satellite.
Yet if ever the attempt is made to put any sort of project of
communication between us and Mars into practice, the signals would have
to be carried out on a much vaster scale. It would not be triangles,
squares, circles, of several miles which would have to be constructed,
but figures of 70 miles or more, always supposing (1) that Mars is
inhabited, (2) that these inhabitants occupy themselves with astronomy,
(3) that they have optical instruments analogous to ours, and (4) that
they carefully observe our planet, which to them is a brilliant star
of the first magnitude, the morning and evening star, and in fact the
brightest heavenly body.
Is this fourfold hypothesis acceptable! If that question were put to
the vote of the citizens of the Earth, without asking the opinion of
the Central African savages or the South Sea Islanders, but only the
numerical majority of the European population, one may safely wager
that they would not even understand the question, for the majority of
mankind does not know that the Earth is a planet and that the other
planets are Earths.
And then there is sound common sense which reasons so justly on
account of the excellence of its education. “We are,” it says, “without
doubt the most intelligent beings of creation. Why should other planets
have the honour of being enriched by intellectual excellence such as
ours? Can we even admit the existence of beings similar to ourselves?”
No doubt one could perhaps remark that the most gifted nations of the
Earth do not know how to conduct themselves, that their intelligence is
chiefly exercised in devouring each other and in ruining themselves,
that they mortgage the future like blind fools, that thieves are not
uncommon, nor even murderers. But apart from that we are obviously very
superior beings, and it is hardly likely that on any of the myriads of
worlds which gravitate in the immensity of space nature should have
given birth to intelligences of our calibre.
Why therefore should we attempt an optical correspondence with the
planet Mars? If it is inhabited, the inhabitants have not our powers,
and our trouble would be thrown away. Even should they see our signals,
they would never think that they were meant for them.
Also, we shall never attempt it.
* * * * *
But is it possible that the inhabitants of Mars have already commenced
and that it is we who do not understand?
According to geological computations, the minimum age of the Earth
as a habitable sphere since the formation of the first dry land is
20 million years: 10 million 700 thousand for the primordial age, 2
million 300 thousand years for the secondary age, 460 thousand years
for the tertiary age, and 100 thousand for the quaternary age. Man has
existed on Earth since the end of the tertiary age, that is over 100
thousand years. Astronomical instruments were only invented in 1609,
and Mars was not observed nor recognised in its principal geographical
details until 1858. Complete observations of Martian geography only
date back to 1862. The first detailed triangulation of the planet, the
first map comprising the smallest objects visible in the telescope
and measured by micrometer was only commenced in 1877, continued in
1879, and completed in 1882. It is therefore only a few years since
Mars entered into the sphere of our practical observations. I may
add that only very few of the Earth’s inhabitants have seen it in
all its details, one of the foremost of these being the astronomer
Schiaparelli, the Director of the Milan Observatory.
According to the most probable cosmogonic theory, Mars is older than
our planet by several million years and much more advanced along
its path of destiny than ours. The inhabitants of Mars may have
been signalling to us for 100 thousand years. Nobody on our planet
would have suspected it. It is only since the seventeenth century
that astronomers may have thought, not of discovering such signals,
for their instruments were not sufficiently powerful, but of the
possibility of some day seeing a little more of what happens on that
neighbouring world. In fact it is only a few years that we have had any
hope of distinguishing these minute details, not to speak of explaining
them.
* * * * *
Now, this is what happened. The map of the planet Mars was made with
infinite care by the able astronomer of Milan. One sees on this chart
in several regions certain points where the observer has found the
presence of luminous patches shining like snow illuminated by the sun.
That these luminous patches are due to snow is not likely, because
some are seen near the equator in the tropics as well as at higher
latitudes. Nor does it seem likely that they are the tops of mountains,
for they are close to the seas and arranged symmetrically to certain
straight canals. Besides, several of them seem to trace out meridians
and parallels of latitude, and on seeing them one involuntarily thinks
of Geodesic signals. One sees triangles, squares, and rectangles.
That these luminous points should have been established by engineers
or astronomers on Mars is not my idea. That the 60 great rectilinear
parallel canals which we admire on that planet and which establish
communication between the Martian seas should be the work of the
inhabitants of this neighbouring planet would be presumptuous to
imagine. That is not the conclusion I would arrive at. Nature is so
rich in procedure, so varied in its manifestations, so multiple and so
complex in its effects, and often so strange and original in its play,
that we have no right to limit its mode of action.
But it is none the less true that if the inhabitants of Mars wished
to send us any signals, that method of procedure would be one of the
simplest and it is in fact the only one which has been devised among
ourselves. They could not do better than thus dispose luminous points
at certain distances according to geometrical figures. For instance,
one finds the intersection of the 267th meridian with the 14th degree
of northern latitude a region limited by points situated at distances
from each other corresponding to Amiens, Orleans, and Le Mans. If the
inhabitants of Mars wished to send us signals they could not have
chosen better places for their luminous stations.
I am far from saying that this is so and that there is any intention
in this arrangement. Yet if it were so, it would be we who did not
understand.
And there is nothing surprising in this. The inhabitants of the
Earth take no interest in the Heavens. Ninety-nine per cent, of them
among the 1,500 million Earth-dwellers do not know what they walk
on and have no conception of the reality. They are busy with eating,
drinking, and reproducing themselves, with amassing various objects,
with patriotically devouring each other, and with dying. But as regards
asking where they are or what is the universe, that is no concern of
theirs. Their native ignorance suffices them. They live in the middle
of the Heavens without knowing it and without the slightest enjoyment
of intellectual happiness which some select spirits find in the
recognition of truth.
The inhabitants of Mars, on the other hand, being more ancient than
ourselves, can be much more advanced in the way of progress and can
live an enlightened and intellectual spiritual life. We are safe in
supposing that they know our world much better than we know theirs, and
that our astronomical science is only child’s place beside theirs. If,
therefore, the people of Mars, living perhaps for a long time already
in the harmony of a peaceful and intelligent life, had thought of
attempting to send signals to the Earth, with the idea that perhaps our
planet is also inhabited by an intellectual race, then since they have
never received any answer from us they will have concluded that we are
not on their level, that we do not busy ourselves with the matters of
the sky, that astronomy and optics are not very advanced among us, and
that in all probability we have not yet emerged from clumsy material
instincts. Is their conclusion very far from the truth?
Perhaps also the Martian academies declare the Earth uninhabitable and
uninhabited: (1) because it is not absolutely identical with their
planet, (2) because we have only one Moon whereas they have two, (3)
because our years are too short, (4) because our sky is very often
overcast, whereas theirs is almost always clear, (5 and 6) for a
thousand other reasons, each as cogent as the rest.
As we have seen above in the chapter on Mars, one often notices besides
the luminous points we have mentioned certain more extensive brilliant
projections which appear on the terminator and which must be caused by
the reflection of the rising or setting sun on snowy peaks or on clouds
which are certainly not signals. However this may be, of all the bodies
which blaze in the skies on a clear night, and particularly of all
those bodies which gravitate with us round the Sun, there is one which
engages with a captivating interest the attention of astronomers. It is
the singular little world of Mars. But it is not so easy to communicate
with it as was supposed by that good lady of Pau, Madame Guzman, who
left a legacy to the Académie des Sciences in the shape of a prize of
100,000 francs to be given to the first person who should discover a
means of communicating between the Earth and another world--with the
exception of the planet Mars, because it would be too easy! So true it
is that on our planet the best intentions are often mixed up with a few
grains of folly.
After steam, the electric light and the telegraph and the telephone,
the discovery of unmistakable signs of the existence of humanity
inhabiting another region of our solar archipelago, would that not
be the most marvellous apotheosis of the scientific glory of the
twentieth century? And cannot wireless telegraphy be some day applied
to this problem? Electro-magnetism is an immense invisible world still
insufficiently explored. Let us wait, observe, and study.
IX. STARS
AND ATOMS