Mars may have been teeming with life - Until microbes made the red planet uninhabitable.
fr.de/wissen/mars-leben-mikroben-neue-studie-methan-klimawandel-roter-planet-unbewohnbar-nasa-rover-perseverance-91843625.html
Microbes Triggered Climate Collapse on MarsMethane-producing microbes cooled Mars drastically in 500,000 years, turning a once habitable planet into an icy world.
- More than 3.7 billion years ago, Mars supported life with methanogenic microbes metabolizing hydrogen underground.
- These microbes released methane which interacted with the atmosphere and polar ice caps, causing progressive cooling.
- The microbial methane emissions led to near-complete ice coverage of Mars within half a million years.
- Certain areas like Jezero Crater might have sustained microbial life below the surface for some time.
Perhaps it is a common fate of life in the universe to destroy itself.— Lead author Boris Sauterey, in an interview with Inverse, discussing the idea that life in the universe may share a fate of self-destruction.
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