Washington: Was there life on Mars a long time ago? There may have been. Scientists in the US have found evidence of widespread buried deposits of iron- and calcium-rich carbonates on the red planet that they say indicate that there was once a habitable environment, warmer and wetter with liquid water, on Mars.
“Identification of these ancient carbonates and clays on Mars represents a window into history when the climate on Mars was very different from the cold and dry desert of today,” Janice Bishop of the SETI Institute said. Liquid water could have fostered life on Mars once upon a time.
Scientists have been debating about the fate of water on Mars because although the red planet is currently dry and cold, widespread fluvial features etch much of its surface. The trapping of carbon dioxide in Mars’ early atmosphere in ancient surface waters may have resulted in the formation of carbonate-rich bedrock.
