LIFE ON MARS

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No scientist was more excited by this possibility than the wealthy American astronomer Percival Lowell. Inspired by what turned out to be false reports of carefully laid-out channels on the surface, he established an observatory in Arizona and dedicated it to the study of Mars. By 1908, influenced perhaps by optical illusions and wishful thinking, Lowell had charted and named hundreds of canals, which he believed were part of a large network conveying water from the polar ice caps to the parched cities of an arid and dying planet.

Lowell's imaginative scenario, in turn, inspired English novelist H.G. Wells to write The War of the Worlds, a dramatic account of an invasion of Earth by octopus-like Martians. In 1938 a radio drama adapted from that novel by another man named Welles--Orson, that is--panicked many Americans who believed that a real Martian invasion was under way.

Even after the mighty 200-in. Mount Palomar telescope focused on Mars and found no evidence at all of networks of canals or other manifestations of intelligent life, the fascination continued, fueled by books, grade-B movies and TV sitcoms--all involving encounters with Red Planet denizens of various sizes, shapes and consistencies.

Mariner 9, placed in low orbit around Mars in 1971, cast a temporary pall on the fantasies when it transmitted pictures showing a desolate, crater-pocked landscape with no cities, bridges or other signs of intelligent life. But among the craters, canyons and volcanoes, Mariner discerned dry, meandering riverbeds and deltas, unmistakable evidence that water had once flowed freely on the surface in a warm, hospitable climate.

Could life have evolved during this balmy era? It was in part to answer that question that the Viking 1 and 2 spacecraft, each consisting of an orbiter and lander, reached Mars in 1976. Scooping up and analyzing Martian soil in an onboard chemistry lab, the landers found no signs of life, past or present. Still, says Stanford's Zare, the failure in no way ruled out the possibility of existing Martian life. Since Mars lacks an ozone layer, he explains, solar ultraviolet light "will sterilize and break up any type of organics that might be on the surface." For that reason, he says, when NASA gets to Mars again, "it should not just creep around the surface, but look deeper down."

Despite Viking's inability to find life, its orbiter seemed determined to keep the mystery of Mars alive. Among the images it sent back was an overview of a large surface feature resembling a human face. That stirred a frenzy among alien-life enthusiasts, eccentrics and mystics, who were soon insisting that the face--as well as another nearby formation that they described as a ruined city--were the works of an advanced but now extinct civilization.

That myth persists despite Administrator Goldin's admonition last week. "I want everyone to understand that we are not talking about little green men," he stressed. "There is no evidence or suggestion that any higher life-form ever existed on Mars." Undaunted, tabloid editors promptly produced a flurry of new fantasy headlines and stories about aliens, some accompanied by pictures of the so-called Martian face.

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