The Mars they saw, and the Mars that really is.

When people looked at Mars through telescopes, before the space age, they thought they saw green forests, channels dug by people, huge mountains, and polar ice caps. They got some of this right, but a lot wrong. I will talk about the Mars people hoped to find, and the Mars we know today.

 

Tonight’s Kentucky SkyTalk is part of an ongoing series. These are presented by the UK Department of Physics and Astronomy, and the MacAdam Student Observatory. Held every 2nd Thursday of the month, they are always free and open to the public.