User:Mu301/tmp



"Frank W. Very was professor pro tempore of astronomy and director of Ladd Observatory in 1896-97, while Upton was in Peru working for the Harvard College Observatory." 

"In conclusion, it seems to me reasonably certain that a large part of the Moon experiences daily great vicissitudes of temperature. Its rocky surface at midday, in latitudes where the Sun is high, is probably hotter than boiling water; and only the most terrible of Earth's deserts, where the burning sands blister the skin, and men, beasts, and birds drop dead, can approach a noontide on the cloudless surface of our satellite. Only the extreme polar latitudes of the Moon can have an endurable temperature by day, to say nothing of the night, when we should to become troglodytes to preserve ourselves from such intense cold. Yet great as is the midday heat on the Moon, it might be even greater, if an atmosphere existed at all comparable with ours in density; and possibly the comparative absence of atmosphere which has been regarded by some as an insuperable barrier to life, may be the one condition needed for the preservation of some sort of life from destruction by the burning heat."


 * Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter