Arts & Resistance: "Reimagining Mars: From 'Canals' to the Russian Revolution"

Sanil Mittal, LSA Astronomy and Physics; Docent, Judy and Stanley Frankel Detroit Observatory

Thursday, October 12, 2023; 7:00 pm

This talk will dive deep into the so-called "canals" of Mars -- first described in 1877 by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli -- and how they made Mars a central landscape in many works of fiction in the late 19th and early 20th century. We will see some examples of cultural and artistic interpretation of Mars and the canals in science fiction and the impact of such representations on progressive politics and revolution, primarily in the early and mid 20th century. The talk is presented as part of the LSA Arts & Resistance Theme Semester.

Sanil Mittal is a Junior in LSA majoring in Astronomy and Astrophysics and Interdisciplinary Physics with a minor in Business. He is a student docent at the Detroit observatory and has imaged and processed many of the images taken through the Henry Fitz Telescope. He is also engaged in making astronomy more accessible to the public with his work as the president of the Student Astronomical Society on campus. He has previously given a talk on how Mars has been depicted in Science Fiction, and here he expands on that idea.

As with all Observatory events, the Observatory will be open for tours and observing, weather permitting, following the talk.