Life on Mars might have been driven underground after devastating solar flares destroyed its atmosphere.
The cosmic rays are believed to have reduced what might have been a fertile planet to a “frigid desert,” new research claims.
The cataclysmic solar winds lashed the wind for billions of years and stripped the planet of the atmosphere life would depend on.
It’s possible that microbial life could have existed at the surface early in Mars’ history according to the study, which will be published in journal Science.
As the planet cooled off and dried up, any life could have been driven underground, the report found.
“We’ve determined that most of the gas ever present in the Mars atmosphere has been lost to space,” said Bruce Jakosky, principal investigator for NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN).
“The team made this determination from the latest result, which reveals that about 65 percent of the argon that was ever in the atmosphere has been lost to space.”
NASA boffins want to send a magnetic shield to block out the nasty rays and grow alien lifeforms on Mars.
Liquid water, essential for life, is not seen on Mars’ surface today because the atmosphere is too cold and thin to support it.
But features resembling dry riverbeds and minerals that only form in the presence of liquid water indicates the ancient Martian climate was much different – warm enough for water to flow on the surface for extended periods.
The team calculated Mars’ vivid past by analyzing levels of CO2 around the planet using NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft.
The find could bolster scientist’s theory that humanity’s ancient ancestors were descended from organisms which once lived on the Red Planet.
Several have speculated whether life might have begin on Mars and then “contaminated” Earth after being carried here on an asteroid.