Is the surface of Mars criss-crossed by lines so long and straight they can only be constructions of an advanced alien civilization? Many astronomers in the late 19th and early 20th century thought so. Join us in this jaunt into the frailty of human perception.
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Music and graphic design by Rachel Westhoff. Maps, pics, references and more at http://www.deadideas.net.
Time/place: United States, 1894-1906 CE
Dead Idea: The Canals of Mars
Co-hosts: Nick and Anna
Color Plate III from Lowell’s 1906 Mars and Its Canals
Plate VII from Lowell’s 1895 Mars
First photographs of Mars, 1905 – Lowell claims to see up to 38 canals and one double canal in these photographs. Can you?
Modern Enhanced Photograph of Mars
Illustrations from Evans and Maunder’s Greenwich schoolboys experiment
Main Sources
Evans, J. E., and Maunder, E. W. (1903). “Experiments as to the Actuality of the ‘Canals’ Observed on Mars.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 43: 488-499.
Hyde, D., Veiller, A., and Horner, H. (1952). Red Planet Mars [Motion Picture]. USA: Mellaby Pictures. Retrieved Aug 29, 2018, from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OXYLCVUaCc
Lowell, P. (1895). Mars. New York: Houghton, Mifflin, and Co.
Lowell, P. (1906). Mars and Its Canals. Norwood, MA: Norwood Press.
Lowell, P. (1908). Mars as the Abode of Life. New York: MacMillan.
McGinty, M. J. (2016). Canals on Mars: Lowell Revisited. Amazon Digital Services LLC (self-published).
Sagan, C., and Fox, P. (1975, August). “The Canals of Mars: An Assessment After Mariner 9.” Icarus 25(4): 602-612.
Wallace, A. R. (1907). Is Mars Habitable?: A Critical Examination of Professor Lowell’s Book “Mars and Its Canals”, With an Alternative Explanation. London: MacMillan.