Study indicates life was possible all over Mars

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Source: afp

AFP - Conditions suitable for life -- most notably the presence of water -- may once have existed all over Mars, the European Space Agency (ESA) said Friday.

Hydrated silicate minerals were found by the ESA's Mars Express and NASA's Mars Reconnaissance orbiters in northern lowlands of the Red Planet, a clear indication that water once flowed there, ESA said in a statement ahead of the publication of a study in journal Science.

Water was present on the surface of Mars four billion years ago but lasted for only a few hundred million years, according to principal investigator Jean-Pierre Bibring from the University of Paris.
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"Mars had already lost its atmosphere 3.5 billion years ago, water was no longer stable in the liquid state on the surface," said Bibring.

Read more: http://www.france24.com/en/20100625-study-indicates-life-was-possible-all-over-mars

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Wet era on early Mars was global
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Although Mars’ potential habitability did not last long, remarkably its record is still preserved in phyllosilicate-rich spots.

A number of scientists have suggested that a shallow ocean subsequently covered the lava-coated northern plains. However, no evidence in support of this is provided by the new results.

“Our studies do not find any signs of the lava plains in the north being altered by water,” says Dr Bibring.

On a positive note, the new results may suggest sites for future landers because evidence for water during the early history of Mars suggests that conditions may have been favourable for the evolution of primitive life.

source: esa, http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMU70MZLAG_index_0.html