Mars may have been more similar to the Earth than we knew, with wet and dry seasons conducive to life, according to scientists.
Researchers have discovered fossil evidence suggesting the Red Planet had a cyclical climate more than three billion years ago.
Scientists believe wet and dry seasons would have provided ideal conditions for the formation of complex ancient organic compounds that would have served as precursors to life.
The researchers said their findings, published in the journal Nature, also opened up new areas of research into the natural processes that gave rise to life.
They wrote that their findings pointed to a sustained, cyclic, possibly seasonal, climate on early Mars which may have been ‘favourable to prebiotic evolution.’
The team said that, unlike Earth, Mars has huge areas of well-preserved terrain with abundant fossil rivers and lakes dating back billions of years.
Earth, on the other hand, has tectonic plates – large slabs of rock dividing the planet’s crust and moving constantly to reshape its landscape.
Mars is cold and inhospitable but evidence suggests it may have once had liquid water – a necessary ingredient of life – and a thick atmosphere.
But over billions of years, the planet lost much of its atmosphere, transforming its climate from one that might have supported life into the dry and frozen environment of today.
This article appeared in Metro
