Flashes of light were frequently seen on Mars and have been called Transient Martian Phenomena, similar to Transient Lunar Phenomena. Some astronomers interpreted it as signals; others thought them to be clouds drifting across the surface.
Archive for the 'All about Mars' Category
It was in fact an April Fool’s Day television special done for the BBC that was never aired because of a television strike in Britain. When it was finally aired, most people did not realize that it was an April Fool’s joke. It was later published in Britain and the United States in book form as “science fact,” also on April Fool’s Day.
After Viking 1 Orbiter flew past Mars on July 31, 1976 at an altitude of 1,278 miles, taking pictures of the surface, some new and interesting information suddenly appeared in a photograph released and described by NASA only as “the northern latitudes of Mars.”
A few years later, astronomers noticed markings that seemed to be connected in a system that covered the whole planet. These markings were dubbed “canals” and were believed to be just that by many of the foremost astronomers of the time. Italian astronomer Schiaparelli was first to note the canals in the early 1890s and other astronomers began to notice them as well.
Mars was a popular planet to view and literally hundreds of astronomers observed it for some time. These same astronomers even discovered moons on Uranus. Then one day Asaph Hall found that Mars had two satellites where none had been observed before.
