The Cambridge Companion to Galileo by Peter Machamer

Author:Peter Machamer [Peter Machamer]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 100521581788
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Salviati is certain, however, that the darker parts are plains and the brighter ones mountain ranges because “the boundary which separates the light and the dark part makes an even cut in traversing the spots, whereas in the bright part it looks broken and jagged.”16

He is also willing to say that life on the Moon would be unlike anything known to us because of different climatic conditions. First, a lunar day is equal to a terrestrial month, and no earthly plant and animal could survive fifteen days of relentless and scorching heat. Secondly, the seasonal changes, which are considerable on the Earth because of a variation of 47° in the rising and setting of the Sun, are much less on the Moon where the variation is only 10°.

Finally, although oceans cover a large part of the terrestrial globe, the Moon must be waterless since it has no clouds. Sagredo suggests that this last difficulty might be overcome by postulating storms or great dews during the night. Salviati's reply is again instructive:

If from other appearances we had any indication that there were species similar to ours there, and that only occurrence of rain was lacking, we should be able to find something or other to replace it, as the inundations of the Nile do in Egypt. But finding no property whatever that agrees with ours of the many that would be required to produce similar effects, there is no point in troubling ourselves to introduce one only, and even that one, not from sure observation but because of a mere possibility.17

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