By Aahil
November 04, 2022
New research suggests that climate change destroyed ancient Martian microbial life.
Climate simulation replicated hydrogen-consuming, methane-producing Mars microorganisms 3.7 billion years ago.
The model argues that Earth's atmospheric composition and relative distance from the sun made life thrive on Earth but die on Mars.
Mars, further from our star than Earth, relied on a powerful fog of heat-trapping greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide and hydrogen to preserve life-friendly temperatures.
According to the experts, life may not be self-sustaining in all favorable environments and might quickly wipe itself out by accidentally damaging its own foundations.
"The components of life are everywhere in the universe," study lead author Boris Sauterey, an astrobiologist at the Institut de Biologie de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, told Space.com.
Our experiment indicates that even a primitive biosphere can self-destruct.
Life may occur frequently in the universe. Life becomes extinct quickly because it cannot maintain habitable conditions on Earth.