The Ascension of Mars

Abstract

Speculation about extraterrestrial life continued in the 19th century, as did the development of the telescope by Sir William Herschel and others. The discovery of the moons of Mars by Asaph Hall in 1877 drew attention to that planet. Thereafter, the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli observed Mars closely and became convinced its landscape contained canali (natural or artificial channels). Schiaparelli mapped Martian canali and speculated that they were irrigation canals built by a great Martian civilization.