JF Ptak Science Books Post 2762
I am not sure of when it was that the first view of the Earth from another planet appeared in print. They are certainly rare prior to 1900, so that when I saw (the following) 19th century images of extraterrestrial landscapes in Scientific American (November 23, 1877) with the Earth in the background I was stopped by their unexpectedness--how unusual that unusualness is I don't know. I remember that the very busy and gifted Camille Flammarion's published views of the Earth like these in his Astronomie Populaire in 1880, though the images that follow were published several years earlier in the SA.
The extraterrestrial landscapes are a leap of faith based on available observations, and no doubt that the readers of the late 19th century seeing these images for the first time would have been transported by their ingenuity and depth of understanding i n representing the Earth as just another bit in the sky when it is seen from other locations.
These images also led to a note about a paper that Flammarion wrote for La Nature1 in 1873 on what turns out to be the similarities of the atmospheres on Mars and Earth--and that led me to a somewhat earlier paper that he wrote for the Comptes Rednus that seems to have a little more punch than the later one.
In the short paper in the CR2 Flammarion observes that the Earth is mostly covered by water, and on Mars there is more “land/continental surface than maritime/sea surface”. “ L'étude détaillée de la planète montre que sa surface est bien différente de la surface terrestre, au point de vue du partage des terres et des mers. Chez nous, les trois quarts du globe sont couverts d'eau; sur Mars, au contraire, il y a plus de surface continentale que de surface maritime.”
He then notes that according to spectrum analysis the Martian atmosphere and seas and snows are made of water just as they are on Earth. “...l'analyse spectrale montre que l'atmosphère de Mars est chargée de vapeur d'eau comme la nôtre, et que ces mers, ces neiges, ces nuages sont réellement composés de la même eau que nos mers et nos météores aqueux”. And at the end of the article, saying that the atmosphere of the Earth and Mars are very similar: “ La météorologie de Mars est à peu près la même que celle de la Terre; l'eau y est dans le même état physique et chimique que sur notre propre globe...”
Also, there is vegetation on Mars which is very different from that of Earth, and that is what gives the planet its red color, as the plants growing there must be red. “...comme ce n'est pas l'intérieur du sol que nous voyons, mais la surface, la coloration rouge doit être celle de la végétation de Mars, quelle que soit d'ailleurs l'espèce de végétation qui s'y produise.”
In his last summary point, Flammarion makes a case for the possibility of life on Mars, saying that conditions for necessary for life on Earth and life on Mars are familiar and similar for both planets (“...organic conditions there are not very different from those that have presided over manifestations of life on the surface of the Earth.”)“Enfin les raisons d'analogie nous montrent sur cette planète, mieux que sur toute autre, des conditions organiques peu différentes de celles qui ont présidé aux manifestations de la vie à la surface de la Terre.”
And so some pretty strong observations about water and snow and life on Mars, all coming before the Schiaparelli developments and the canals four years later.
That was a long digression--the Earth from afar images follow the footnotes.
Notes:
1. Camille Flammarion, “La Planète Mars d’après les dernières observations astronomiques” in La Nature - Revue des sciences, n° 10, page 145. (August, 1873) and is translated soon after for Popular Science https://todayinsci.com/F/Flammarion_Camille/FlammarionCamille-Mars.htm
2. _____. “Sur la planete Mars”, in Comptes Rendus, vol 77 no 4, p. 278, July 28, 1873.
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