Word: martian
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...away seemed to offer as little hope as the lunar rocks that life would be found elsewhere in the solar system. Flying past the planet Mars, the small, instrument-packed spacecraft detected no evidence of nitrogen, an indispensable ingredient of life on earth. Probing the upper reaches of the Martian atmosphere, they failed to find anything like the ozone shield that protects the earth's surface from the sun's deadly rain of ultraviolet radiation. Even their stunning close-up photographs from only 2,200 miles above the red planet seemed to indicate that Mars is a cold...
...first pictures arrived from Mariner 6 when it was still 771,500 miles from the Martian surface. But by the time the spacecraft's cameras finished their day's work, they had recorded 33 pictures and brought earthly viewers within 453,350 miles of the red planet. None of the initial photographs were particularly startling. But Caltech's Robert B. Leighton, director of the photographic work, noted that at least one picture showed a ragged edge at the south polar cap-"possibly caused by the presence of mountains or craters...
...following day, Mariner 6 produced 17 more Martian photographs from as close as 111,400 miles. Far more stunning than the earlier series, these pictures brought out what seemed like cloud formations near the south pole, verified the presence of numerous craters, and revealed shadings in what had previously been thought to be an all-white polar cap. Leighton spotted at least two features that he thought might be "canals," although he speculated that they might have been caused by electronic noise...
...designed only to determine whether Mars could support life. At week's end, investigators were already mulling over two important observations. Mariner 6 had failed to detect any nitrogen -an ingredient of all earthly life -but it found signs of water in the form of ice in the Martian atmosphere or on the surface...
Modern science has long since dispelled most of the ancient myths. Yet it has failed to solve one of the great Martian mysteries: Does the planet harbor any form of life...