THE SKY THIS MARCH: WHAT IF WOMEN REALLY WERE FROM VENUS AND MEN WERE FROM MARS?

I was reading the popular text book by John Gray, "Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus", the other day. Anyone who has spent any time with the opposite gender will appreciate the insight the book provides. As I read the book, I couldn't help wondering... what if men really were from Mars and women really were from Venus?

Venus (named for the Roman goddess of love) has been called Earth's sister planet in the past. Having about the same mass (gravity), and swirling clouds over the planet, it seemed like a good match. But then radio astronomers measured the temperature of the surface of the planet through the clouds and found a whopping 700 degrees! Then visible light astronomers discovered the clouds were made of sulfuric acid (battery acid).

The Russians tried to send robot spacecraft to the surface but they found an atmosphere 90 times more dense than Earth's and the spacecraft died within hours because of the hostile environment. They did manage to send back some pictures showing a desolate rock strewn landscape tinted yellow by the sulfuric acid rain.

Mars (named after the Roman god of war), on the other hand, is a pipsqueak of a planet only 1/10 the mass of the Earth. Early astronomers were excited about Mars because they could see polar ice caps and large "green" patches through their telescopes which grow and shrink with the seasons. From orbit, spacecraft relayed images of dried up river beds. Life might be possible there.

Then the U.S. actually sent spacecraft to the planet. We found a desolate, rock strewn landscape tinted red by large deposits of rust! We also discovered winds raging at 400 mph and mountains of blowing dust. This was because Mars has such a small gravity that it can only keep an atmosphere 3 percent that of Earth's.

If women were from Venus, then they would have skin like elephants', be very short because of the pressure, sweat profusely because of the heat, and have acid running through their veins. If they came to Earth they would be like Superwomen crashing around like little giants.

If men were from Mars, then they would be wimps! With less gravity than on Earth the men from Mars would have pathetic muscles. They would need big puffed up chests caused by large lungs to get oxygen out of the thin Martian air. On the other hand, they could probably run forever on Earth and never have to catch their breath.

If women were from Venus and men were from Mars and they met on Earth, there would be no contest. The women would rule!

Perhaps John Gray knew his astronomy after all.

This month we continue to be treated to a fine show of planets in the West at sunset. Mercury is first from the Sun putting on one of its best shows in recent years. Next is Jupiter, then Venus, and then Saturn. The planets are the brightest objects in that part of the sky and they lie along the plane of the solar system called the ecliptic or the Zodiac.

March presents us with our second "Blue Moon" of the year. A Blue Moon is the second full moon in one month and is somewhat rare. On March 20th the Sun appears to cross over the equator and head north thus marking the first day of Spring.

The Big Dipper constellation is well up in the northeast while Orion and Leo are high in the south. Later in the evening the planet Mars begins to make its presence known around 9 p.m. It has a definite red appearance and can be seen low in the east.

~Dr. Michael Cobb is an astronomer and chairman of the physics department at Southeast Missouri State University.