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Monday, December 12, 2011

Life could thrive on 'large regions' of Mars… but mostly underground, say scientists

A greater percentage of Mars is habitable than Earth, say scientists who have made an overall study of temperature and pressure conditions of the Red Planet.

Researchers from the Australian National University say that three per cent of Mars could sustain life, while just one per cent of Earth’s volume contains life – from the core to upper atmosphere.

However, the team say that most Earth-like organisms would need to retreat underground to survive on Mars.

Water discovery: Opportunity helped confirm that Mars used to be much warmer and wetter

Water find: Thanks to huge amounts of ice and warmer conditions underground, life could thrive on Mars

Astrobiologist Charley Lineweaver told AFP: ‘What we tried to do, simply, was take almost all of the information we could and put it together and say “is the big picture consistent with there being life on Mars?”’ And the simple answer is yes... There are large regions of Mars that are compatible with terrestrial life.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2073096/Life-possible-large-regions-Mars-underground-say-scientists.html

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