Ancient life on Mars may have lived deep underground, new research suggests. Geothermal resources on Mars melt the undersides of glaciers and form lakes and rivers that provide environments for life.
Researchers at Rutgers University used computer simulations to calculate the likelihood that life arose on Mars in ancient times and to speculate where it did.
They found that even with more carbon dioxide and water vapor in the ancient Martian atmosphere, the Martian ground would not have provided a stable environment for life in the long term. But they found that 4 billion years ago, there was enough geothermal activity underground to melt glaciers and form rivers that could be habitable.
The theory could also explain the “young, low-light sun” paradox that has long puzzled scientists, the researchers suggest. Scientists believe that four billion years ago, the sun was about 25 percent cooler than it is today, meaning Mars was cold and a frozen world. However, scientists have found a large number of dry riverbeds, minerals and compounds left over from ancient times on the surface of Mars, suggesting that the planet was rich in flowing water between 4.1 billion and 3.7 billion years ago.
Lead researcher Lujendra Ojha said: ‘If Mars had substantial geothermal resources in the past, then the young weak sun paradox may be solved, or at least partially explained.’
It also has an effect on the work of the approaching Ship Perseverance, the researchers say. Finding evidence of ancient life on Mars is an important task for Perseverance. At the moment, perseverance is equipped with tools that can only drill about 30 feet below the surface.
If the theory is correct, research will require a larger drill to drill miles underground to find any traces of microbes.
Rocky planets like Mars, Earth, Venus and Mercury contain uranium, thorium and potassium that generate heat in the process of radioactive decay. The researchers suggest that even if the sun wasn’t hot enough at the time, the geothermal resources would have been enough to melt the thick underlying glaciers.
On Earth, such geothermal lakes can be found beneath glaciers in the Southwest Ice Sheet, Greenland, and the Canadian Arctic. Researchers think this is probably the case on Mars, where the lakes dried up and froze over the next billions of years.
Researchers have gathered a wealth of data showing that such lakes and rivers are likely to exist underground.
“Deep underground, life is supported by geothermal activity and water-rock interactions,” Oha said. So the subsurface of Mars could be a long-term habitable environment.”
The study was published recently in the journal Science Advances.
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