Nicolas Camille Flammarion (February 26, 1842 - June 3, 1925) was a French astronomer and author of popular science works about astronomy, several notable early science fiction novels, and several works about Spiritism and related topics. He published the magazine L'Astronomie and maintained a private observatory at Juvisy-sur-Orge, France. In 1907 he wrote that he believed that dwellers on Mars had tried to communicate with the Earth in the past. In 1910 for the appearance of Halley's Comet, he believed the gas from the comet's tail "would impregnate (the Earth's) atmosphere and possibly snuff out all life on the planet.'" He has been described as an "astronomer, mystic and storyteller" who was "obsessed by life after death, and on other worlds, and (who) seemed to see no distinction between the two." He died in 1925 at the age of 83.