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Perhaps, he admits, the fascinating mysteries of Mars, its seasonal changes (suggesting the growth of vegetation) and its geometrically regular details (suggesting intelligent designers and builders) will be explained away by further research —and with them all life on Mars. But perhaps not. "We [have not] demonstrated," De Vaucouleurs says hopefully, "that life could not adapt itself to the known conditions of dryness, temperature, atmospheric pressure and atmospheric composition [on Mars]—after all not so very different from our own."
* Photography may do better when the Palomar telescope takes motion pictures of Mars at the next favorable apposition, in 1956. The 200-in. mirror gathers so much light that it can take a snapshot of Mars in a very brief exposure. A continuous strip of such pictures should catch the planet at instants when its image is not being jiggled by atmospheric irregularities.