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The search for water on Mars
The search for water on Mars

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This figure shows a hand-drawn map, about double the width compared to its height. Its title reads ‘Mars 1890’. The map area is divided into a grid pattern by horizontal and vertical lines, with a thicker horizontal line in the middle marking the equator. The top quarter of the map is mostly featureless and is labelled “Mare Austraale”. There are three circles in that area, named Thyle I and Thyle II, and Argyre II. Towards the bottom of the map, the drawing becomes more complex. In the second quarter from the top, dark shading surrounds two larger circles, one labelled Hellas and one labelled Thaumasia. The bottom half of the map is very different. There many random criss-crossing lines, no large circles, and only one small, shaded area in the bottom quarter. There are many labels on the map, including Hesperia and Arabia.
Figure 4 Global Mars map by Giovanni Schiaparelli in 1890 after a period of Mars observations starting in 1877. The most striking feature of the map are the straight lines, which Schiaparelli called ‘canali’ meaning channels but were mistranslated to canals implying their creation by a martian civilisation.

 1 Observing Mars from Earth