ASTRO-110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 28: Martian Canal, Percival Lowell, Atmospheric Pressure
Document Summary
William herschel was the astronomer that discovered uranus and with his sister made many observations on mars. He and his sister discovered mars" polar ice caps and discovered the length of its. Thought that mars had an atmosphere much like earth"s and that it was inhabited. Giovanni shiaparelli claimed to have seen a network of 79 linear features that he called day (24 hours and 37 minutes) canals built by a martian civilization. His discovery was misinterpreted and people began to think that these canals were. Percival lowell believed in the martian canals and built an observatory to observe mars. Thought mars was an old civilization and was the one that inspired a lot of belief in a civilization existing on mars. Mars looks much like the deserts and volcanic plains of earth. However the atmpspheric pressure is a lot lower 1% of earth"s.