We have long wondered if there was life or water on Mars, researchers agree on the idea that there was water on Mars, but it is still a debate to determine how much water there was. A new study, however, claims there was enough water that the entire planet could have been covered by an ocean hundreds of meters deep, and in that sense, perhaps there was life on the Red Planet long before there was on Earth.
Conditions for life on Mars
The University of Copenhagen’s new study published in Science Advances has shown that about 4.5 billion years ago, Mars was bombarded with ice-filled asteroids, something that occurred in the first 100 million years of the planet’s evolution. These same asteroids also carried organic molecules, such as amino acids, which are biologically indispensable for life.
The oceans that extended all over the now-red planet would be at least 300 meters deep and up to a maximum depth of one kilometer. This amount is even greater than that existing on Earth, where there is very little water.
“This occurred in the first 100 million years of Mars. After this period, something catastrophic happened for potential life on Earth. It is thought that there was a gigantic collision between Earth and another planet the size of Mars. It was an energetic collision that formed the Earth-Moon system and, at the same time, wiped out all potential life on Earth,” said Martin Bizzarro, a professor at the Center for Star and Planet Formation.
This shows that researchers have really strong evidence that the conditions that allowed life on Earth were present on Mars long before they were on our planet.
Thanks to a billion-year-old meteorite that was part of the original crust of Mars, researchers were able to delve into the history of Mars, as it has offered a unique insight into what happened at the time when the solar system we know today was formed.
If Mars was able to harbor life, it is a secret that is hidden in the way its surface was created, since it does not present any type of movement. Unlike Earth, where the tectonic plates are in constant motion and are recycled in the interior of the planet.
“Plate tectonics on Earth erased all evidence of what happened in the first 500 million years of our planet’s history. Plates are constantly moving and being recycled and destroyed in the interior of our planet. In contrast, Mars has no plate tectonics, so the planet’s surface preserves a record of the planet’s earliest history,” explained Bizzarro.
It is likely that life existed on Mars long before it was propitiated on Earth, is the conclusion that Bizzarro and his team of researchers have reached, although more research is still needed to be certain that this was the case.
Story originally published in Spanish in Ecoosfera