Astronomer Percival Lowell is known for correctly predicting the existence of Pluto, and closer to home, for incorrectly predicting the existence of intelligent life on Mars.
Lowell was greatly enthused by the discovery of what was believed to be canals on Mars by Giovanni Schiaparelli in 1877, and devoted a great portion of his studies to observing the Red Planet. In 1894 he opened an observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and from there he believed he observed the construction of massive canals.
Percival Lowell at his observatory in 1914. Lowell often viewed Mars from here. Via Wikimedia Commons.
In 1910, newspapers reported Lowell’s announcement of “the completion of a new gigantic engineering enterprise by the people of Mars, who are ‘making the dirt fly’ in a manner that excites the envy of the builders of the Panama.”
The excited astronomer photographed the Martians’ work and measured the canal to be a thousand miles long. “Water has been turned into it, and between the months of May and September vegetation has appeared in an hitherto uninhabitable part of the great desert which spreads over the greater part of the planet’s surface,” reporters claimed.
Lowell had taken photographs the previous year, which did not show these canals. Therefore, he was convinced it couldn’t be natural and had to have been created artificially.
“The canals in Mars can be seen by children,” he said. “They were not there in June; they were there in September. They are still there.”
Lowell believed that the canals ran between the planet’s poles in an attempt direct water from the icecaps. This was the Martians’ attempt to save their planet from drying out.
Professor W. S. Burnham, a fellow astronomer agreed. So did many journalists, one of whom wrote, “Professor Lowell’s latest discovery is of the utmost importance and supplies the strongest confirmation yet obtained of the theory that there are intelligent beings on Mars.”
Scientists eventually discovered the canals their predecessors had seen were simply optical illusions. However, in recent years layers of ice beneath the surface the Red Planet have been found. But no Martians—yet.
