(ORDO NEWS) –New data from computer models show that ancient Mars was habitable enough for microbes to live on. But they may have destroyed themselves, causing irreparable harm to the atmosphere of the Red Planet.
Creating their model, scientists added one new element to it – microbes that consume carbon dioxide and hydrogen, producing methane.
They certainly could have existed at that time on a planet similar to Earth, with its rivers, lakes, and perhaps even oceans. This made it possible to estimate the probable Martian biosphere, if one really existed.
Results
- The model showed that microbes could not only survive but thrive on early Mars. They should have been most comfortable in the top few hundred meters below the surface.
- However, at the same time, it turned out that the “reign” of methanogens could be relatively short-lived.
- In the computer model, microbes removed large amounts of hydrogen from the atmosphere and replaced it with methane, causing global cooling in just a few hundred thousand years.
The problem that these microbes faced: the atmosphere of Mars has practically disappeared, which means their source of energy.
In addition, the temperature would drop significantly, and they would have to go deeper into the earth’s crust.
It is currently very difficult to say how long Mars has remained habitable,
scientists say.
Of course, this study is based on assumptions, not real facts, so it should not be taken as a real fact.
There is ample evidence that conditions on Mars were once suitable for microbial life, but so far no evidence has been found that it existed.
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