Ancient Mars could have been teeming with microbial life, researchers find

If the hydrogen-gobbling, methane-producing microorganisms existed, they would have caused their own demise

Ancient Mars may have had an environment capable of harboring an underground world teeming with microscopic organisms, French scientists reported on Monday. But if they existed, these simple life forms would have altered the atmosphere so profoundly that they triggered a Martian Ice Age and snuffed themselves out, the researchers concluded.

The findings provide a bleak view of the ways of the cosmos. Life – even simple life like microbes – “might actually commonly cause its own demise”, said the study’s lead author, Boris Sauterey, now a post-doctoral researcher at Sorbonne University.

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