1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,500 In 1877, Italian astronomer Giovanni Ciamparelli announced that he had found seemingly man-made 2 00:00:08,500 --> 00:00:10,940 canals on the surface of Mars. 3 00:00:10,940 --> 00:00:14,780 But by the 1920s, his startling discovery had been completely discredited. 4 00:00:14,780 --> 00:00:20,940 Now, more than a century later, new high-powered telescopes are seeing the canals again. 5 00:00:20,940 --> 00:00:26,780 In Florida, astronomer Don Parker is using photographic telescopes and computer enhancement 6 00:00:26,780 --> 00:00:29,820 to create a provocative new look at Mars. 7 00:00:29,820 --> 00:00:34,500 These images are generating a lot of controversy because of these features, which resemble 8 00:00:34,500 --> 00:00:36,420 the so-called Martian canals. 9 00:00:36,420 --> 00:00:38,980 This missed his bunk more than 50 years ago. 10 00:00:38,980 --> 00:00:49,240 Don Parker, in some cases, has pushed the resolution on them by very strong processing 11 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:53,340 methods that you can do with these electronic pictures. 12 00:00:53,340 --> 00:01:00,700 In some cases, lines have come out that look very much like the canals. 13 00:01:00,700 --> 00:01:06,660 The belief that an elaborate system of canals exists on the surface of Mars began with Ciamparelli, 14 00:01:06,660 --> 00:01:11,340 but was popularized by American astronomer Percival Lowell, who proposed a startling 15 00:01:11,340 --> 00:01:16,460 theory about the creation of the Martian canals, and his observations made headlines. 16 00:01:17,460 --> 00:01:24,620 Lowell was the major proponent of the idea that the canals might be artificially made 17 00:01:24,620 --> 00:01:27,140 by intelligent beings. 18 00:01:27,140 --> 00:01:33,380 And he spent a great deal of his time trying to sell this idea to both the scientific community 19 00:01:33,380 --> 00:01:36,140 and the general public. 20 00:01:36,140 --> 00:01:38,180 He thought that there were Martians. 21 00:01:38,180 --> 00:01:43,220 For the past 30 years, astronomer Leonard Martin has been curator of the original observatory 22 00:01:43,220 --> 00:01:46,020 built by Lowell in 1894. 23 00:01:46,020 --> 00:01:50,540 In Flagstaff, Arizona. 24 00:01:50,540 --> 00:01:55,820 Many of Lowell's original papers, sketches and calculations, are stored in this underground 25 00:01:55,820 --> 00:01:56,820 vault. 26 00:01:56,820 --> 00:02:02,900 This is one of Percival Lowell's original Mars log books that he used at the telescope. 27 00:02:02,900 --> 00:02:08,220 And these are the original sketches that he made after his observations. 28 00:02:08,220 --> 00:02:12,220 If you look closely on them, you can see what Lowell considered canals. 29 00:02:12,220 --> 00:02:16,700 And these sketches then were transferred later on to these Mars globes, which were a real 30 00:02:16,700 --> 00:02:20,820 treasure of Lowell Observatory. 31 00:02:20,820 --> 00:02:25,740 As bigger and better telescopes were built and failed to capture Lowell's Martian canals, 32 00:02:25,740 --> 00:02:27,660 his theory fell out of favor. 33 00:02:27,660 --> 00:02:31,860 And when Mariner 9 took the first close-up pictures of Mars, it seemed that Lowell's 34 00:02:31,860 --> 00:02:34,860 canals were gone forever. 35 00:02:34,860 --> 00:02:37,860 Lowell was a keen observer. 36 00:02:37,860 --> 00:02:44,020 However, he was straining his eyes to see these things that he thought he saw. 37 00:02:44,020 --> 00:02:46,620 He pushed himself a little too far. 38 00:02:46,620 --> 00:02:51,500 Nearly all modern astronomers reject Lowell's theory of artificially constructed canals 39 00:02:51,500 --> 00:02:52,500 on Mars. 40 00:02:52,500 --> 00:02:57,860 However, Percival Lowell's influence as a scientific pioneer, he still felt. 41 00:02:57,860 --> 00:03:05,100 Well, I think that any search for life has to include Lowell as a player, because Lowell 42 00:03:05,100 --> 00:03:10,380 created a lot of interest in the possibility of extraterrestrial life. 43 00:03:10,380 --> 00:03:15,700 And so our search using SETI is part of that. 44 00:03:15,700 --> 00:03:21,260 And certainly his influence is felt and always will be. 45 00:03:21,260 --> 00:03:25,940 The Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona is open to the public year round and boasts 46 00:03:25,940 --> 00:03:30,900 a brand new visitor center where everyone is welcome to explore the oldest observatory 47 00:03:30,900 --> 00:03:31,580 in the West.