OTHERWORLDLY CARTOGRAPHY: In Schiaparelli’s first detailed map of Mars, finished in 1878 (top), he colored channels blue and their surroundings white. His later schematics (bottom, completed in 1888) became more abstract, with straight lines and dustier shades. Despite the detail in these drawings, it was incredibly hard to see the features of Mars through telescopes of the time. Astronomers created intricate diagrams like these by compiling small sketches from multiple nights of observation. © SCIENCE HISTORY IMAGES/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; WIKIMEDIA/Giovanni Schiaparelli
When Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli peered at Mars through a powerful telescope in the late 1800s, he observed dark channels raked across its surface. These features became the key characteristics in his detailed maps of the planet, which fueled more than a decade of wild speculation regarding alien-built canals.
Schiaparelli’s drawings were provocative. His first detailed map of Mars, published in 1877, laid out an intricate network of channels (or canali in Italian) that were colored in blue, in sharp contrast to other representations at the time that marked the Martian surface in the reddish-orange shades that more closely approximate the planet’s actual hue. His later diagrams became more abstract—winding waterways became straight, dark lines—partly in response to criticism from other astronomers, says Maria Lane, ...
