Volume 29, Number 10 · June 10, 1982
Mars Bars
By Bernard Lovell
The Channels of Mars
by Victor R. Baker
University of Texas Press, 198 pp., $49.50
The Surface of Mars
by Michael H. Carr
Yale University Press, 232 pp., $45.00
In my youth it was a popular assumption that the 'canals' on the planet Mars had been constructed by intelligent beings. Our other near planetary neighbor, Venus, was perpetually covered in clouds and these were assumed to be Earth-like clouds obscuring a surface that could well be exotic in its fauna and flora. The shattering of any such beliefs by the space investigations during the last twenty years marks one of the greatest advances in astronomical knowledge in recent times. Venus, although closely similar to Earth in size and density, has been revealed as a most inhospitable planet, the searing heat on the surface and the poisonous constituents of its clouds making any form of biological evolution out of the question.
Review, 2243 words
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