The search for life on Mars
Some early astronomers were certain that intelligent beings lived on Mars. Percival Lowellpopularised the idea that the Martians built canals to irrigate their dying planet.
In 1965, the Mariner 4 probe took the first close-up photographs of the Red Planet and revealed a barren and crater-scarred surface more like that of the Moon.
The 1976 Viking mission's negative microbial life test results further dampened the prospects of even the tiniest forms of Martian life.
But the recent discovery of methane plumes in Mars's atmosphere, a tantalising clue pointing to potential subsurface life, has raised the hopes of some experts.
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