Not Earth, experts predict that the first life appeared on Mars due to water

The landscape that looks barren is full of red desert Mars nicknamed the Red Planet. Despite the nickname, Mars it is believed that in the past the defeat was just a planet that was filled with water and had life.

To collect Scientific alarma study by an international team concluded that Mars 4.5 billion years ago had oceans as deep as 1,000 feet or 300 meters.

The experts involved in this study also believe that Mars could be the first planet in the Solar System capable of supporting life. The reason is that experts estimate that Mars has organic molecules and other elements distributed by asteroids and comets.

The study was conducted by experts from the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), the Center for Star and Planet Formation, the University of Copenhagen, the Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology ETH Zurich and the of physics from the University of Bern.

Experts believe, as quoted by The progress of science, the planets of the Solar System experienced a period of the Last Great Bombardment as a result of an asteroid forming their formation 4.5 billion years ago. These impacts are believed to distribute water and the building blocks of life throughout the Solar System.

For the purposes of their study, the team reported variations of a single chromium isotope in meteorites from Mars dating back to that period. The meteorites were part of the Martian crust at the time and were ejected by an asteroid impact that sent them into space.

Because Mars doesn’t have active plate tectonics like Earth does, its surface doesn’t experience constant convection and recycling. For this reason, meteorites ejected from Mars billions of years ago offer a fascinating glimpse into what the planet was like shortly after the formation of the Solar System.

“Plate tectonics like Earth’s obliterate any evidence of what happened in the first 500 million years of our planet’s history. They are constantly moving back and forth and tearing apart our planet’s interior,” said one of the authors. , Professor Bizarro.

“On the other hand, Mars has no tectonic plates, so the planet’s surface retains traces of the planet’s ancient history,” he added.

By measuring the meteorite’s chromium isotope, the team estimated the extent of the impact on Mars about 4.5 billion years ago and the amount of water delivered. As a result, there is enough water to cover the entire planet with oceans 300 meters to 1 kilometer deep.

In addition to water, asteroids also distributed organic molecules such as amino acids (the building blocks for cellular DNA, RNA and proteins) on Mars during the time of the last major bombardment.

This means that life may have existed on Mars when Earth was still barren. “This happened inside Mars in the first 100 million years. After this time, something catastrophic happened for potential life on Earth,” says Bizarro.

“It is believed that there was a major collision between the Earth and a Mars-sized planet. It was this energetic collision that formed the Earth-Moon system and wiped out all life on Mars at the same time,” he said .

[Gambas:Video CNN]

(th/th)