The fascination of Mars began in the late 1870s, by an Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiapparelli who used a telescope to observe canals on Mars. This fired public interest especially the imagination of Percival Lowell, an businessman interested in astronomy. In Arizona, he founded an observatory where his observations of Mars convinced him that the canals were "dug by intelligent beings-a view which he energetically promoted for many years."By the 1900s popular songs told of sending messages between Mars and Earth by means of huge signal mirrors. Books were published displaying stories of Martians living their lives on Mars.
Hopes were deflated with the first robotic spacecraft on Mars in the 1960s. Pictures showed a desolate world, with Moon-like craters. In 1975 chemical testing was done on Mars but tests proved negative.
In the 1990s NASA scientists began to rethink the possibility of past or current life on Mars. Mars is too cold with an atmosphere that is too thick to contain liquid water on its surface. Yet scientists kept encountering features that seemed to have been formed by flowing water.
One theory states that Mars was once much warmer and wetter, with a thicker atmosphere that could have very well supported oceans, rivers and rain. The other theory states that Mars was always cold, but water trapped as underground ice was released from time to time when heating caused ice to melt and rush onto the surface. In either case, the change of what happened remains a mystery. Many believe that this change could have occurred from climate change over many years, which thinned the atmosphere.
1996- Scientists had a meteorite believed to have come from Mars. It contained what might be the residue of ancient microbes.
Mars, our red planet, was given an immense amount of public attention on July 4, 1997, when Mars Pathfinder landed on a windswept, ancient flood plain. Pictures of towering volcanoes and huge chasms were sent to Earth. This was a surprise and evidence leaning toward life on Mars.
