by Theresa O'Riordan

Created on: April 22, 2008   Last Updated: March 10, 2009

Exoarchaeology is a little-known discipline: It can be defined as the archaeology of outer space. Lacking opportunities to conduct digs for artifacts on other planets, those interested in this field have had to rely mostly on the observations of astronomers and the thoughts of conspiracy theorists who think the U.S. government is trying to hide evidence of alien life.

In 1877 Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli, an Italian astronomer, peered through his small telescope and, soon after, announced to the world that he had seen channels on Mars. "Channels" was erroneously translated into English as "Canals", and it was assumed that Schiaparelli was referring to canals constructed as public works projects by Martians. After this theory came out, Percival Lowell, an amateur astronomist, investigated these "canals" through his telescope and concluded that they were indeed made by aliens. He also claimed to have seen some vegetation, which of course, if true, would indicate life on Mars in general: The canals, if indeed there, would prove there were actual beings on Mars capable of cooperation, civil engineering, and implementing a plan with a specific goal in mind. These qualities, if they could be proven to exist among the alleged Martian beings, would indicate intelligence. Of course, nothing could be proved at all.

By 1976, satellite imagery made it clear (to most)that Mars did not, in fact, have any artificially made canals. NASA made the mistake (or produced a clever PR piece to draw attention to its work) of implying to the general public that there was a region covered with what could be mountains - which they said looked suspiciously like human heads complete with all the requisite facial features.

On his website "Bad Astronomy", astronomer Phil Plait, who researched in the mainstream of the field for ten years, talks about various "pseudo-scientists" like Richard Hoagland. Hoagland is a modern-day astronomer on the very fringes of the field. He has been featured many times on "Coast to Coast A.M.", a radio show which he claims has a fairly decent amount of listeners. Hoagland has basically based his career on the notion that one of the "human heads" on Mars is actually a city, complete with large pyramids, all surrounding an enormous statue of some kind. Plait says that he has been invited on several occasions to debate Hoagland, but that to try to refute such ridiculous theories would be a waste of time, and merely help Hoagland build a larger following and to

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>