In the Search for Life beyond Earth, the Only Constant Is Hope
In the late 1800s Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli pointed a telescope at Mars and saw something curious: linear features that he called canali, meaning “channels” or “grooves.” A mistranslation of that word helped lead to a widespread belief that the planet closest to Earth hosted a civilization. American astronomer Percival Lowell took Schiaparelli’s observations and…
