Mars, often referred to as “the red planet”, is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere, and has a crust with similar composition as that of Earth’s, as well as a core which is composed of iron and nickel. There has been evidence of the presence of water on Mars but how much is still debatable.
From the Centre for Star and Planet Formation, Professor Martin Bizzaro said that during that time the planet was covered with asteroids filled with ice which occurred during the first 100 million years of the planet’s evolution. Asteroids also carried organic molecules that were necessary for life.
The icy asteroids also brought amino acids to the Red Planet in addition to water. Amino acids, an essential biological molecule in a cell, are used when DNA and RNA form bases.
It was published in the journal Science Advances.
Mars was once covered with water, a new study at University of Copenhagen
Bizzarro adds that as the study indicates that the oceans were 300 meters deep, which is approximately one kilometer, as compared to Earth where there is actually very little water.
All this happened within the first 100 million years. Soon after this period, something catastrophic happened on Earth, a gigantic collision between the Earth and another Mars-sized planet. This energetic collision, apart from forming the Earth-Moon system, wiped out all potential life on Earth, says Bizzarro, which really forms strong evidence that conditions necessary for the emergence of life were present on Mars long before Earth.
Mystery behind the billion year old meteorite
A meteorite, it was by this means, in billions of years the researchers have been able to look into the history of Mars. Once a part of Mars’s original crust, the meteorite offers a unique insight into what actually happened at that time when the solar system was formed.
The whole mystery is the way the surface of Mars was created, and of which the meteorite was once a part of as it is a surface that does not shake, which is completely different on Earth. The tectonic plates of Earth are in abiding motion and recycled in the mantle.
Earth’s tectonic plates erased our planet’s history regarding what happened 500 million years ago. It constantly moves and is recycled back and destroyed into the interior of our planet. Mars on the other hand does not have plate tectonics and its surface preserves a record of its earlier history, explains Martin.
