Among all the planets in the solar system, Mars has been one of the most "talked-about" over the last century. In fact, very serious and prudent scientists did not exclude the possibility of the existence of some form of primitive life. Through Earth telescopes, Mars appears as a reddish disk in which it is difficult to distinguish any particular features. Sometimes a few structures can be seen and then at other times they seem to disappear. However, one thing does seem to be certain: a glacial ice cap, similar to those on the Earth, appears and disappears according to the seasons. This made Mars the only planet on which there was a feature that is also found on our planet. Then there were reddish areas which were not unlike our deserts. Furthermore, the red planet rotated on its axis in exactly 24 hours, just like the Earth. In other words, a series of circumstances seemed to make Mars the most similar planet to our own and, therefore, would have a greater probability of having developed other living organisms. However, there were also many differences: since Mars is slightly more than half the size of the Earth, if it had an atmosphere it would have to be rather rarefied, considering the smaller force of attraction exerted on the gases. Much farther from the Sun (227 000 000 kilometers compared with 149 000 000 for the Earth) it should be much colder. All insuperable obstacles relative to the capability of supporting life. Finally, there was the question of the canals, a subject which began one night in 1877 and was debated by astronomers until the merciless eyes of the space probes finally solved the mystery. One night during the last century, an Italian astronomer, Giovanni Schiaparelli, looking through his telescope saw a series of long and straight furrows on the surface of the planet. He called them "channels", a word that in our language only means "furrows" and does not imply that they are artificial. The fact is that in English the word was translated as "canal", that instead means structures built to transport water. This was all that was needed to go from the suspicion to the existence of some type of life in the hope of finding a technological civilization that was advanced enough to dig irrigation canals thousands of kilometers long: this is how the red planet became inhabited by Martians.
Among all the planets in the solar system, Mars has been one of the most "talked-about" over the last century. In fact, very serious and prudent scientists did not exclude the possibility of the existence of some form of primitive life. Through Earth telescopes, Mars appears as a reddish disk in which it is difficult to distinguish any particular features. Sometimes a few structures can be seen and then at other times they seem to disappear. However, one thing does seem to be certain: a glacial ice cap, similar to those on the Earth, appears and disappears according to the seasons. This made Mars the only planet on which there was a feature that is also found on our planet. Then there were reddish areas which were not unlike our deserts. Furthermore, the red planet rotated on its axis in exactly 24 hours, just like the Earth. In other words, a series of circumstances seemed to make Mars the most similar planet to our own and, therefore, would have a greater probability of having developed other living organisms. However, there were also many differences: since Mars is slightly more than half the size of the Earth, if it had an atmosphere it would have to be rather rarefied, considering the smaller force of attraction exerted on the gases. Much farther from the Sun (227 000 000 kilometers compared with 149 000 000 for the Earth) it should be much colder. All insuperable obstacles relative to the capability of supporting life. Finally, there was the question of the canals, a subject which began one night in 1877 and was debated by astronomers until the merciless eyes of the space probes finally solved the mystery. One night during the last century, an Italian astronomer, Giovanni Schiaparelli, looking through his telescope saw a series of long and straight furrows on the surface of the planet. He called them "channels", a word that in our language only means "furrows" and does not imply that they are artificial. The fact is that in English the word was translated as "canal", that instead means structures built to transport water. This was all that was needed to go from the suspicion to the existence of some type of life in the hope of finding a technological civilization that was advanced enough to dig irrigation canals thousands of kilometers long: this is how the red planet became inhabited by Martians.
