Life on Mars, study by the University of Arizona and French universities,
The researchers finds that the ancient Mars could have been home to living organisms had the planet itself not self-destructed with its self-produced climate change. Regis Ferrière states that young Mars was full of carbon dioxide and hydrogen enough to have likely created a temperature climate where water could flow and microbial life could thrive.
However, the authors remind the readers that their argument is not about life existing on early Mars, and even if it was, the study shows that early Mars would very likely have been habitable to methanogenic microbes, or microorganisms that convert carbon dioxide to methane.
They are stating that it could be possible that living organisms survived the harsh conditions of the ancient Mars – again, methanogenic microbes. These microbes exist in extreme habitats on Earth like hydrothermal vents along fissures in the ocean floor.
Mars would have been warm and wet than its current cold and dry climate of it because of the large concentrations of hydrogen and carbon dioxide, both strong greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere.
Image courtesy of the researchers: Boris Sauterey, Benjamin Charnay, Antonin Affholder, Stéphane Mazevet, Régis Ferrière.