Portrait of Giovanni Schiaparelli
SPL/Photo Researchers

Giovanni Schiaparelli

Gioavanni Schiaparelli was an Italian astronomer who lived between 1835-1910. He noticed that there were straight lines on the surface of planet Mars which formed a pattern, and called them canals. This made many people think that something lived on Mars which had built these structures. However, the canals on Mars are just natural geologic features, like canyons and mountains on the Earth.


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