Why the New York Times Claimed Life Had Been Found on Mars

"If you followed news about either the media industry or space exploration back in 2021, you probably remember when the New York Times accidentally published a story claiming that watermelons had been found on the planet Mars. "Authorities say rise of fruit aliens is to blame for glut of outer space watermelons," read the story, which the newspaper deleted less than an hour later, but is still accessible in an archived snapshot."

"he had glimpsed "legions of canals on Mars, forming a colossal and a wisely planned system designed to irrigate the oases of the vast deserts which make up the surface of this planet." "The astronomer finds a network of marvelously designed canals traversing the deserts, meeting at certain points, the lines uniform, thousands of miles in length, three to seventeen canals sometimes converging at one point," Whiting wrote. "Therefore, the only logical result that can be"

In 2021 the New York Times' testing system accidentally published a spoof story claiming watermelons had been found on Mars, which was deleted within an hour and identified as a dummy draft. A much earlier sensational claim appeared in December 1906 proclaiming life on Mars. Journalist Lilian Whiting described Percival Lowell's conviction that a large telescope at Lowell Observatory revealed a network of canals on Mars. Lowell interpreted those canals as a deliberately planned irrigation system connecting oases across vast deserts. Observers reported uniform lines and multiple canals converging at points, suggesting engineered Martian infrastructure.

Read at Futurism