Prolific Italian astronomer whose research ranged widely but whose name is forever associated with Mars, and the controversy over the Martian "canals" which, unwittingly, he helped to unleash. Born in Savigliano, Piedmont, Schiaparelli graduated from the University of Turin and studied at the Royal Observatory in Berlin under Johann Encke, discoverer of a short-period comet that now bears his name. After a brief spell at Pulkova Observatory in Russia, under Otto Wilhelm Struve (1819-1905) (Otto Struve's grandfather), he joined the staff of Milan's Brera Observatory in 1860 and became its director two years later. The small instruments at Brera led Schiaparelli to focus his research initially on meteors and comets. Indeed, probably his most important contribution to astronomy was his discovery that swarms of meteors, which give rise to annual showers on Earth, and comets follow similar paths through space. His reward for this breakthrough was the installation of a more powerful (8.6-in.) refractor at Brera which allowed him to engage in serious planetary work. He first wanted to test the powers of the new instrument, to see if it "possessed the necessary optical qualities to allow for the study of the surfaces of the planets." 1877 brought the ideal opportunity in the form a particularly favorable opposition of Mars. Schiaparelli prepared for it almost like a prize fighter, avoiding "everything which could affect the nervous system, from narcotics to alcohol, and especially ... coffee, which I found to be exceedingly prejudicial to the accuracy of observation."
Google on Friday updated Google Mars with the ability to look back in time at historical maps of the Red Planet.
The new updates will be streamed as part of Google Earth 5.0, the search giant said.
Users will need to select "Mars" from the drop-down menu, then select the historical maps layer. From there, maps made by Giovanni Schiaparelli, Percival Lowell, and others can be viewed.
"Then, users can fast-forward to the present day with the new 'Live from Mars' layer, featuring a continuous stream of the latest imagery from today's Mars spacecraft," Google added in a statement. "'Live from Mars' includes imagery from NASA's THEMIS camera on board the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, and lets users fly along with Odyssey as well as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to see what they have been observing lately and where they are headed next."
Two new guided tours of the Martian landscape are led by Ira Flatow of Public Radio's Science Friday and Bill Nye the Science Guy. The update also includes new NASA imagery, and geolocated articles from Hartmann's A Traveler's Guide to Mars including Olympus Mons, the "Face on Mars," and other sites.
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