Abstract
A MONOGRAPH by the writer, relating to the temperature of the lunar surface, read before the American Academy of Science, September 1869, contained the following:—“Are we not forced to dissent from Sir John Herschel's opinion that the heat of the moon's surface, when presented to the sun, much exceeds that of boiling water? Raised to such a high temperature, our satellite, with its feeble attraction, could not possibly be without an envelope of gases of some kind. Indeed, nothing but the assumption of extreme cold offers a satisfactory explanation at the absence of any gaseous envelope round a planetary body, which, on account of its near proximity, cannot vary very much from the earth as regards its composition. The supposition that this neighbouring body is devoid of water, dried up and sunburnt, will assuredly prove one of the greatest mistakes ever committed by physicists.” This assertion was based on demonstrations showing that the circular walls of the great “ring mountains” on the lunar surface are not, as supposed, composed of “mineral substances originally in a state effusion.” The height and diameter of these walls being recorded in “Der Mond,” computations based on the safe assumption that the areas of their transverse sections cannot be less than the square of their height, establishes the important fact that the contents of the wall of, for instance, Tycho, the circumference of which is 160 miles, height 2.94 miles, amounts to 2.94 × 160 = 1382 cubic miles. The supposed transfer of this enormous mass, in a molten state, a distance of 25 miles from the central vent imagined by Nasmyth, and its exact circular distribution at the stated distance, besides its elevation to a vertical height of nearly 3 miles, involve, I need not point out, numerous physical impossibilities. Other materials and agencies than those supposed to have produced the “ring mountains” must consequently be sought in explanation of their formation. A rigid application of physical and mechanical principles to the solution of the problem proves conclusively that water subjected successively to the action of heat and cold has produced the circular walls of Tycho. The supposition that these stupendous mounds consist of volcanic materials must accordingly be rejected, and the assumption admitted that they are inert glaciers which have become as permanent as granite mountains by the action of perpetual intense cold.
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ERICSSON, J. The Lunar Surface and its Temperature . Nature 34, 248–251 (1886). https://doi.org/10.1038/034248a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/034248a0