Life on Mars: The Red Planet in the Deep – Potential Life on Mars probably lived below the surface

WASHINGTON: If life ever existed on ancient Mars, it would have lived up to several miles below the surface of the Red Planet, likely due to the subsoil melting of thick ice sheets fueled by geothermal heat, according to one study.

The research, published in the journal Science Advances, examined various Mars data sets to see if warming through geothermal or underground heat would have been possible 4.1 billion to 3.7 billion years ago or in the era of Noah.

They showed that the conditions necessary for the melting of the subsurface would have been ubiquitous on ancient Mars.

Even if Mars had a hot and humid climate 4 billion years ago, with the loss of the magnetic field, atmospheric thinning, and the subsequent drop in global temperatures over time, liquid water may have been stable only at great depths, the researchers found.

Thus, life, if it ever originated on Mars, may have followed liquid water to progressively greater depths, they said.

“At such depths, life could have been sustained by hydrothermal (warming) activity and rock-water reactions. Thus, the subsurface may represent the longest habitable environment on Mars,” said lead author Lujendra Ojha, Professor. Rutgers University assistant. -New Brunswick in the United States.

The study may help solve what’s known as the dim young sun paradox, a persistent key question in Mars science.

“Even if greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and water vapor are pumped into the early Martian atmosphere in computer simulations, climate models still struggle to keep Mars warm and humid in the long term,” Ojha said.

“My co-authors and I propose that the paradox of the weak young sun can be reconciled, at least in part, if Mars had high geothermal heat in the past,” he said.

The researchers noted that our sun is a massive nuclear fusion reactor that generates energy by fusing hydrogen into helium.

Over time, they explained, the Sun has gradually illuminated and warmed the surface of the planets in our solar system.

According to the researchers, about 4 billion years ago, the Sun was much weaker, so the climate of the early years of Mars should have frozen over.

However, the surface of Mars has many geological indicators, such as ancient river beds, and chemical indicators, such as minerals related to water.

These suggest that the Red Planet had abundant liquid water in the Noah era, the researchers said.

This apparent contradiction between the geological record and climate models is the faint young sun paradox, they said.

On rocky planets like Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury, heat-producing elements like uranium, thorium, and potassium generate heat through radioactive decay.

In such a scenario, liquid water can be generated by melting to the bottom of thick ice sheets, even if the Sun was weaker than it is now.

On Earth, for example, geothermal heat forms subglacial lakes in areas of the West Antarctic ice sheet, Greenland, and the Canadian Arctic.

The researchers noted that a similar merger likely helps explain the presence of liquid water on cold, icy Mars 4 billion years ago.