Martian life might have thrived in the planet's early days. A new study found climate change may have driven it to extinction.
on Earth. And according to a new study, Mars may offer an example of the damage that can occur to life itself because of the greenhouse gas effect.
How did they come to such a discovery? University of Arizona researchers created hypothetical scenarios of Martian ecosystems using models of Mars' crust, atmosphere and climate, as well as an ecological model of methane-producing microbes. Scientists found that Mars' early days would have been the right conditions for life to prosper, but a global cooling event likely would have taken place because of some life forms' consumption process, making the planet's surface uninhabitable. But that thriving population could not last, scientists found, because of all the methane the microbes produced.
The study does note that its modeling likely underestimates the global cooling effect, as it doesn't consider increasing albedo, or the ability of surfaces to reflect sunlight. The more ice that is present, for example, the more of the sun's rays could be reflected away from Mars' surface, keeping temperatures cooler. That process is what also contributes to Earth's warming as sea ice melts, allowing more light to be absorbed in the deep and dark oceans.
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