Blasting into Space

Mars:Fact and Fiction

Mars was named after the Roman God of War. Mars was always pictured in the armor and weapons of a soldier. In 1877 Giovanni Schiaparelli, an Italian astronomer, made drawings and maps of the Martian surface that showed strange features. The images from telescopes at the time were not as sharp as today's telescopes. He said he could see lines or canals. In 1894 an American astronomer, Percival Lowell, saw the Mars surface from his observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. He was sure that there was a great group of canals that had been dug to irrigate crops for the Martian race! The idea that there was life on Mars grew in the late 19th century. In 1898 H.G. Wells wrote a science fiction classic, The War of the Worlds. The War of the Worlds is about an invading force of Martians who try to conquer Earth. A radio broadcast by Orson Welles on Halloween night in 1938 of The War of the Worlds caused panic across America. This web site will give you the inside scoop.

Mars, the Roman God of War