A repeat DA from calmer days...
Gulliver encountered astronomers who, in his own words
"discovered two lesser stars or satellites, which revolve around Mars,
whereof the innermost is distant from the center of the primary exactly
three of its diameters, and the outermost five; the former revolves in
the space of ten hours, the latter in twenty one and a half."
We know, of course, that the planet Mars has two moons, Phobos and
Deimos. They're captured asteroids whose names mean "Panic" and
"Dread," Phobos and Deimos were the sons of Ares (the Greek equivalent
of the Roman Mars) who accompanied their Dad into every bat...
Wait a minute!
Gulliver's Travels, from which the above quote was extracted, was published by Irish Satirist Johnathan Swift in 1726.
Astronomer Asaph Hall (1829-1907) - discovered the two Martian Moons in
1877! Nobody knew that Mars even had satellites until this discovery.
How did Johnathan Swift know about these moons before anyone else on
Earth did? Well, this question has inspired some highly creative, even
outlandish, theories. One theory, admittedly the most sensible, was
that Swift was actually a Martian emissary sent here to aggravate Irish
politicians with his scathing wit. Swift thus wrote "Gulliver's
Travels" as a means of obliquely announcing his true extraterrestrial
identity. Another theory, quite irrational, is that he merely
guessed and just happened to be correct. Or, some suggest, the
literate Swift read the words of German astronomer Johannes Kepler
(1571-1630) who mistranslated an anagram published by Galileo Galilei
(1564-1642)
The Galilean anagram was as follows
smaismrmilmeopoetaieumibunenug
ttauras
Before you begin, be aware that the phrase was written was Latin, the scholarly language of the time.
Galileo only sent this anagram to close associates. When decoded, it
announced his discovery that Saturn had a "triple form," or elongations
on either side. Despite his cleverness, Galileo never realized these
elongations were end sections of a ring system.
The proper anagram translation was "Altissimum planetam teregeminum observavi"
(I have observed the most distant planet to have a triple form")
Kepler, also clever, mistranslated the anagram as "Salue umbistineum geminatum Martia proles."
("Hail, twin companionship, children of Mars!") Yes, we would have come up with that one, too!
Kepler believed that Galileo had discovered two Martian moons. Kepler
assumed that Galileo would have wanted to keep that discovery a secret,
so as not to exacerbate the religious tensions that his previous
findings (such as the discovery of the four Galilean Moons) had already
engendered.
The notion of two Martian moons was also consistent with Kepler's notion
of "symmetry," As Venus had no moons, Earth had one and Jupiter had
four (then known) moons, it stood to reason that the intervening planet,
Mars, should have two. Galileo's anagram merely confirmed
Kepler's intuition about the issue.
Though the correct translation of the Galilean word puzzle would be
published and well known within half a century, the concept that Mars
might have two moons still circulated amongst the literary cognoscenti,
including Swift. He might have included this information (or, as it were, misinformation) in his writing.
So, the US Naval Observatory astronomer Asaph Hall is given credit for
finding the two Martian Satellites, to the unconcealed chagrin of the
Laputians.