Mars' two moons present what would appear to you a most striking phenomenon, for one rises in the East and the other in the West, passing each other at times within view of observers.The most distant satellite of Mars is known to us as Laster, to which has been given the name of Deimos by the first observers on your Earth.Approximately 132 hours elapse between its rising and setting at any particular point on our planet, as a consequence of the fact that it revolves in 30 hours 18 minutes at a distance of 14,600 miles more or less from its primary; and as Mars rotatesin 24 hours 37 minutes from East to West the motion is almost neutralized by the circulation of this satellite.
During the time of its rotation it changes four times from full to new and new to full. The appearance of this satellite to the Martians is equal, if not a little brighter than the view of Jupiter from your Earth.
The second satellite, known to us as Benii, and to your astronomers as Phobos, sheds considerable amount of light on the Martian landscape by means of its large size and close proximity, being distant about 3,700 miles from the surface of Mars.This satellite is shut out from view beyond 69 degrees latitude by reason of the curvature of its primary.Its period is 7 hours and 30 minutes--less than one-third the time of the rotation of Mars.It rises in the West and courses across the Heavens in 11 hours, during which time it undergoes one entire cycle of its phases and gets through half another.Its disc appears to us as a little more than half of the moon's disc on your Earth at full appears to you.
The realm of Physics presents another interesting study to the Martian student.We have advanced to the study of Nature's laws to a point which would appear to your understanding most incomprehensible.Long ago we mastered the knowledge of the method of releasing Interatomic Energy,[2] a knowledge which in the brain of an unscrupulous person would be most disastrous, not only to himself but to those about him.The energy locked up in an atom of matter is tremendous, and the release of this power is only a matter of knowing the law.The inhabitants of your world will have to bide a long time before the key that will release this giant is placed within their reach.
[2] The Popular Science Monthly, May, 1920, printed the following-- "Sir Oliver Lodge thinks that man is not yet civilized enough to use the energy hidden in ordinary matter.The time will come when atomic energy will take the place of coal as a source of power." The man who spoke thus before the Royal Society of Arts in London was Sir Oliver Lodge-- one of the towering figures in modern science, a man who has devoted the better part of his life to the study and interpretation of the atom.This new form of energy, which our great-grandchildren may utilize instead of oiland coal, has possibilities so appalling that Sir Oliver almost rejoices that we do not know how to release it.I hope that the human race will not discover how to use this energy, he says, until it has brains and morality enough to use it properly, because if the discovery is made by the wrong people this planet would be unsafe.A force utterly disproportionate to the present source of Power would be placed at the disposal Or the world." NOTE (By the Editor in 1920) --This article was published more than two months after the revelation above was received, but is another strikingconfirmation of the truth of these revelations.
Not until you have eliminated your inherent selfishness; not before you have learnt the lesson as Christ taught it will you be permitted to harness one of the mightiest forces in the universe, a force equally as great for evil as it is for good. This knowledge we have, and we have utilized it in the construction and building of our mighty planetary projects.
This Interatomic Energy is the source of the sun's continuous heat.If it were combustion the Solar orb would have burnt itself out ages ago.All your theories to account for the continuity of solar radiation are in error.The release of Interatomic Energy in the sun at a definite rate is the reason why its heat never increases or diminishes though millions of years come and go in endless procession.
