In the centuries since astronomers first observed Mars with telescopes, people have been fascinated with its rocky surface and its potential for life. Many stories of life on the planet have been told and countless books and movies have been written.
For a long time it was believed that the red planet had canals built by intelligent Martians to draw water from the polar ice caps. This idea fueled public interest in exploring Mars.
Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe was a larger-than-life aristocratic astronomer who defied his natural and foster parents to become a scientist rather than a nobleman at the Royal Court. A keen drinker and never one to back down in an argument, he lost part of his nose in a duel.
He had an early interest in astronomy and began learning the subject at a young age, first at his family’s manor house in Knutstorp, then at Copenhagen University. He eventually built the first modern European observatory, a sky castle, on Hven island near Copenhagen.
When he was sixteen, Tycho began noticing errors in the position of planetary bodies predicted by Ptolemaic cosmology. Eventually, he produced a new system that combines the best of both systems–the traditional geocentric Ptolemaic cosmology and the Copernican heliocentric model.
Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler was a German mathematician and astronomer who is most famous for defining the three laws of planetary motion. He also worked on the science of refraction, the splitting of light into its component colors, and created eyeglasses for nearsighted people.
He was born on December 27, 1571, in Weil der Stadt, a small town in southwest Germany. He attended schools in Swabia and then studied theology at Tubingen.
In March or April 1594 he accepted a position at the Protestant school in Graz, Austria, where he studied and taught mathematics and astronomy. He moved to Prague in 1600, where he worked under the supervision of Tycho Brahe.
Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy, on 15 February 1564 (Julian calendar; 26 February 1564 by our modern day Gregorian calendar). He was the son of Vincenzo Galilei, a court musician, and Giulia Ammannati.
His parents encouraged him to study medicine, but he quickly realized that it was not what he wanted. Instead, he became interested in studying mathematics and decided to pursue it instead.
His early work focused on speed and velocity, gravity, free fall, and the principle of relativity. He also explored inertia, projectile motion, and the properties of pendulums. He was also the first to use a telescope to study the night sky.
Percival Lowell
Percival Lowell, an American businessman and author, was a pioneer in planetary science. He founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and furthered theories of a ninth planet within our Solar System.
He was also a prominent pacifist, a passionate advocate of the peace movement. He died in 1916 from a stroke at the age of 61.
In eighteen ninety-four, he built an observatory near Flagstaff, Arizona. Using his wealth, he started observing Mars, Venus, and Mercury.
Initially, he was convinced that the markings on Mars showed evidence of intelligent life. But later astronomers found that the markings were just natural surface features. They were not canals, as he had claimed.
Imagination
Imagination, also known as mental imagery or imaginative thinking, is the process of generating and remembering new mental representations. It is a crucial element of cognitive architecture and the central factor in the creative process.
The ability to imagine is rooted in brain areas responsible for vision, emotion and senses, as well as areas controlling reasoning and speech. It is also a fundamental part of the process of learning and problem-solving, making knowledge applicable to everyday life.
There has been extensive contemporary discussion on the nature of imagination and its role in human understanding and activity. Much of this has been centered on particular roles that imagination is purported to play in various domains of human understanding and activity, such as understanding other minds (section 3.1), performing and recognizing pretense (section 3.2), characterizing psychopathology (section 3.3), engaging with the arts (section 3.4), thinking creatively (section 3.5), acquiring knowledge about possibilities (section 3.6), and interpreting figurative language (section 3.7). These debates are largely resolved by whether the imaginative attitude(s) posited can fulfill the respective roles.