What would have happended had Isaac Newton not been sitting under that tree ???
Earlier scientists thought the marks on mars where canals,
Some people went so far as to propose the idea that the canals were irrigation canals built by a supposed intelligent civilization on Mars.
Percival Lowell was a strong proponent of this view, pushing the idea much further than Schiaparelli, who for his part considered much of the detail on Lowell's drawings to be imaginary. Some observers drew maps in which dozens if not hundreds of canals were shown with an elaborate nomenclature for all of them. Some observers saw a phenomenon they called "gemination", or doubling - two parallel canals.