Dear steemians, to continue with the theme of the planet Mars, I want to write a little about the enigma that exists about the alien life, this controversial issue in all aspects is interesting for science, since every day that passes researchers strive to find answers to all the questions that humanity has about aliens.

In 1877 the astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli observes that on Mars there are certain formations that he calls "Canali" and the amateur astronomer Percival Lowell is interested in the drawings of the Italian. This assumes that the channels that Schiaparelli drew must have been built by an extraterrestrial civilization.. In the middle of the XX century, the sightings of flying saucers are counted by thousands.

![1024px-Mars_Atlas_by_Giovanni_Schiaparelli_1888.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmPRKfMXZByDqf3deQDEvatrPbsppVaebDUGohUBBibUD7/1024px-Mars_Atlas_by_Giovanni_Schiaparelli_1888.jpg) [Source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mars_Atlas_by_Giovanni_Schiaparelli_1888.jpg) _**Mars Atlas by Giovanni Schiaparelli 1888**_ ### Are UFOs Martians?.

To understand the UFO phenomenon it is necessary to do a bit of History. A couple of years after Lowell published his book "Mars" science fiction pioneer H.G. Wells publishes his novel "The War of the Worlds," where he describes how Martians armed with tripods and heat rays invade the earth. The scientific knowledge of the time had already led to think that it was possible that there was life on other planets, so much so that in 1938 the radio adaptation of the war of the worlds caused panic among the public, many believed that the Martians really invaded us.

But the UFO phenomenon really took off when in 1947 the pilot Kenneth Arnold reported having seen 9 flying objects that moved like saucers that are thrown over the water, hence the term "flying saucers" emerged. After his report he began to see so many sightings that in 1952 the Air Force of the United States founded the project ["Blue Book"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Blue_Book) to study all these cases where he saw things he called UFO (Unidentified Flying Object). This project lasted until 1969 and studied more than 12 thousand reports. [Source of the image](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:K-Arnold(reconstitution).png) ### What were the reports of the study? * 67% of the cases turned out to be identifiable objects, were planets or stars that people confused by spacecraft. Some were meteorites: when a rock that comes from space and enters the atmosphere can be burned spectacularly, others were artificial satellites, some more were hot air balloons or meteorological and even birds. * 2% was attributed to psychological phenomena, the people who reported them already had a tendency to hallucinate or imagine things. * It was considered that there was not enough information to be defined in 9% of the cases. * And 22% was classified as "No Explanation".

Could it be that UFOs are coming from Mars?

We have sent probes there and we have seen that its temperature is 60 degrees centigrade below zero (-60° Celsius): very cold but not impossible, it has a very thin atmosphere and there is water, it is possible that there is life there the probes have not found anything, everything indicates that Schiaparelli or Lowell saw wrong or were confused, both the current observations with telescopes and the probes [Mariner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_program), [Viking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_program), [Pathfinder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Pathfinder) and others, they have discovered in Mars valleys, majestic mountains, craters and even rivers but no sign of channels or of Martians. [source of the image](https://pixabay.com/p-11012/?no_redirect) _Mars by Pixabay_ ![926px-MarsCuriosityRover-Drilling-Sol170++-2.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmR5nnzqog2RtwGqVUzfLhsoNe7jsBia5XMos2rDEvffcQ/926px-MarsCuriosityRover-Drilling-Sol170%2B%2B-2.jpg) _View of Curiosity’s robotic arm showing drill in place, with Yellowknife Bay and Mount Sharp in the background._ [Source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MarsCuriosityRover-Drilling-Sol170%2B%2B-2.jpg) **NASA / JPL-Caltech / Olivier de Goursac**

It has been proposed that Unexplained UFOs are extraterrestrial vehicles that come not from Mars but from planets that orbit other stars or even from other galaxies, it would be very exciting in that case they would come from so far that even moving at the speed of light they would have to travel percent or thousands of years to get here or have knowledge so advanced that we can not even imagine. For example, take shortcuts in spacetime.

In that case the scientists wonder: would the aliens take so much trouble to come and not even say hello or establish a base? The truth is that although there are cases that remain without explanation there is absolutely no evidence that they are of extraterrestrial origin. Whenever a video that seems conclusive to the existence of extraterrestrials has been shown to be false, it is very easy to make videos that apparently show that the Martians visit us and it does not even take high technology to do a trick. [Source of the Image](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ufos_over_liverpool_-_panoramio.jpg) Although there are some alleged testimonies of people who were contacted and even abducted, we do not have a single artificial object originating from outer space.

The famous circle signs that appear in the fields although they are very beautiful can easily be made by a person with a stick and a pair of ropes. Now that does not mean that there can be no intelligent life outside the earth, the universe is vast and there must be hundreds of millions of planets that can hold life. In fact, scientific efforts such as [SETI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_for_extraterrestrial_intelligence) are insistently seeking signals from messages from outer space, but so far nothing. Recently the pentagon revealed that it is still investigating unexplained sightings. [Source of the Image](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CropCircleW.jpg)

In conclusion, while there is no overwhelming evidence, these flying objects will remain unidentified, we have not received spacecraft from Mars but we have sent our robots there. In any case Mars is a planet inhabited entirely by robots.

> **Acronyms.** **UFO:** Unidentified Flying Objects. **SETI:** Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. _**The images used in this article can be reused according to your copyright.**_ #### If you liked what you just read do not forget to follow me and support me @jlmol7 ### References. [1](http://www.thinkaboutit-ufos.com/scientific-study-of-unidentified-flying-objects/), [2](https://www.livescience.com/20645-ufo-sightings.html), [3](https://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/19/us/ufo-sightings-history/index.html), [4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Schiaparelli), [5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percival_Lowell).

ralfm