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Mars Madness: Fantasy To Science
Times of India ^
| 1.29.04
| Connie Cass
Posted on 01/29/2004 12:28:33 PM PST by ambrose
Mars Madness: Fantasy To Science [AP ]
By Connie Cass
Washington: Mars has inspired the human imagination for more than a century, generating a parade of little green men and bug-eyed monsters first sparked by the belief that the planet was crisscrossed with alien-made canals.
Today, fantasy has given way to science, with the Spirit rover sending back eerily clear pictures of empty vistas and a president promising that humans will be sent to the Red Planet.
``We do not know where this journey will end. Yet we know this:Human beings are headed into the cosmos,'' President George W. Bush said.
Mars, in particular, has long been calling us. Astronomer Carl Sagan called the planet ``a kind of mythic arena onto which we have projected our earthly hopes and fears.''
``Why so many eager speculations and ardent fantasies about Martians, rather than, say, Saturnians or Plutonians?'' Sagan wrote. For starters, the fourth planet from the sun is not only Earth's neighbor, it's also the planet that most resembles our world. It has a roughly 24-hour day. It has weather and seasons, volcanoes and canyons.
When conditions are right, it is one of the brightest objects in the night sky. Interest in Mars dates back at least to the Babylonians. The ancient Greeks named Mars for their god of war. Galileo was the first to see it through a telescope, in 1609.
But the past century's fascination with Mars can largely be traced to one vigorously promoted error: the mistaken discovery of canals supposedly constructed by intelligent beings.
Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli announced in 1877 that he had spotted some sort of channels - possibly artificial waterways. Mathematician and amateur astronomer Percival Lowell ran wild with the idea. Lowell, founder of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., spent 15 years around the turn of the 20th century peering through his state-of-the art telescope at a hazy red dot with green splotches and white caps at the poles.
``He looks at it night after night, week after week, as long as he can, and he begins to see little straight lines, and they connect the green splotches to the poles,'' said Tom Burns, director of Ohio Wesleyan University's Perkins Observatory. ``He realizes that what he's seeing is without a doubt the most magnificent public works project our solar system has ever known.''
Lowell described Mars as a cold, desert-like planet whose desperate citizens had built hundreds of canals to carry water from melting polar ice caps to farmland.
TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: mars; martians
1
posted on
01/29/2004 12:28:33 PM PST
by
ambrose
To: ambrose
Lowell described Mars as a cold, desert-like planet whose desperate citizens had built hundreds of canals to carry water from melting polar ice caps to farmland.Cuckoo!
Send up Al Gore to check that out, just in case Lowell hit it on the nose.
2
posted on
01/29/2004 12:36:57 PM PST
by
thesummerwind
(Like painted kites, those days and nights, they went flyin' by)
To: ambrose; Conspiracy Guy; Cinnamon Girl; Lazamataz
Lowell, founder of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., spent 15 years around the turn of the 20th century peering through his state-of-the art telescopeThis guy needed a good woman!
3
posted on
01/29/2004 12:39:22 PM PST
by
thesummerwind
(Like painted kites, those days and nights, they went flyin' by)
To: thesummerwind
Larry the Cable Guy says, "I was seeing a real pretty girl for a while. Then somebody stole my binoculars out of my truck."
CG
4
posted on
01/29/2004 12:43:56 PM PST
by
Conspiracy Guy
(I fired my outsourced poster due to poor quality.)
To: ambrose
``He realizes that what he's seeing is without a doubt the most magnificent public works project our solar system has ever known.''
The really big dig?
5
posted on
01/29/2004 12:44:13 PM PST
by
cripplecreek
(.50 cal border fence)
To: thesummerwind
This guy needed a good woman!That's what he was peering at.
6
posted on
01/29/2004 12:44:22 PM PST
by
Lazamataz
(Have you prayed to President Bush today?)
To: Lazamataz
ROFL!!!!!!!!
7
posted on
01/29/2004 12:45:26 PM PST
by
thesummerwind
(Like painted kites, those days and nights, they went flyin' by)
To: ambrose
``He realizes that what he's seeing is without a doubt the most magnificent public works project our solar system has ever known.''That is just a plain weird way of describing what one thinks about finding supposed evidence of extraterrestrial life. It's like, if a multicolored saucer landed in Central Park, Katie Couric walked over and said, "Wow, that's so cool, they sure do have cool colors for their spaceships!"
To: Conspiracy Guy
a real pretty girlYes, I think pregnant women are beautiful. ;)
My wife is ready to download.
9
posted on
01/29/2004 12:48:31 PM PST
by
thesummerwind
(Like painted kites, those days and nights, they went flyin' by)
To: thesummerwind
Great! When is she due?
CG
10
posted on
01/29/2004 1:08:42 PM PST
by
Conspiracy Guy
(I fired my outsourced poster due to poor quality.)
To: Conspiracy Guy
oops!
11
posted on
01/29/2004 1:28:45 PM PST
by
thesummerwind
(Like painted kites, those days and nights, they went flyin' by)
To: Conspiracy Guy
Great! When is she due?Oops!
Just kidding........days, just so the Super Bowl is undisturbed! Gotta lay down the law here.
12
posted on
01/29/2004 1:31:03 PM PST
by
thesummerwind
(Like painted kites, those days and nights, they went flyin' by)
To: thesummerwind
???????????????
13
posted on
01/29/2004 1:34:59 PM PST
by
Conspiracy Guy
(I fired my outsourced poster due to poor quality.)
To: thesummerwind
First!
14
posted on
01/29/2004 1:36:26 PM PST
by
Conspiracy Guy
(This tagline is made from 100% virtual material. Do not remove under penalty of law.)
To: Conspiracy Guy
third. Hope the third time is the charm. The first two looked like the gardener. Yoi!
15
posted on
01/29/2004 1:44:32 PM PST
by
thesummerwind
(Like painted kites, those days and nights, they went flyin' by)
To: thesummerwind
I have 2 but they are now 24/daughter and 22/son. I just turned 600 months old on Jan 15, 2004 myself.
Hope this one looks like you unless that is bad!
CG
16
posted on
01/29/2004 1:48:23 PM PST
by
Conspiracy Guy
(This tagline is made from 100% virtual material. Do not remove under penalty of law.)
To: Conspiracy Guy
I just turned 600 months old on Jan 15, 2004 myself.The big 5-0!!!. You should have told me, I would have baked you a cake!
By the way, tight body, did you get that bulge out of your back pocket yet in that pic? ;)
17
posted on
01/29/2004 2:08:53 PM PST
by
thesummerwind
(Like painted kites, those days and nights, they went flyin' by)
To: thesummerwind
The dang holster on my right hip, the vest, and photo shoping make me look fat. Check your Freemail
18
posted on
01/29/2004 2:32:21 PM PST
by
Conspiracy Guy
(This tagline is made from 100% virtual material. Do not remove under penalty of law.)
To: thesummerwind
BTW we had a party!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1058426/posts?page=13
19
posted on
01/29/2004 2:33:08 PM PST
by
Conspiracy Guy
(This tagline is made from 100% virtual material. Do not remove under penalty of law.)
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