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

French scientists reported on Monday that ancient Mars may have harbored an underground world filled with small organisms. The researchers concluded that these simple life forms would have changed the atmosphere so much that they would have killed themselves.

There is a bleak view of the way the universe works. Boris Sauterey is a post-doctoral researcher at Sorbonne University.

The results are a bit gloomy, but he thinks they are stimulating. They challenge us to think differently about how we interact with our planet.

Sauterey and his team used climate and terrain models to evaluate the habitability of the red planet 4 billion years ago, when it was thought to be more hospitable than it is today.

It was thought that the hydrogen-gobbling, methane- producing microbes might have flourished just beneath the surface, with several inches of dirt more than enough to protect them against harsh incoming radiation. The organisms could have been on Mars just as they were on early Earth.

The moist, warm climate of early Mars would have been jeopardized by the amount of hydrogen being sucked out of the atmosphere. The organisms at or near the surface probably went deeper in an attempt to survive the cold.

The researchers said that the nitrogen-dominated atmosphere may have aided in maintaining the temperate conditions.

Future models of Mars's climate need to consider the French research, according to the SETI Institute.

Pahlevan's study suggests that Mars was born with warm oceans. The atmosphere would have been dense and mostly hydrogen, serving as a heat-trapping greenhouse gas that eventually was transported to higher altitudes and lost to space.

Pahlevan said that the French study looked at the climate effects of possible microbes when the atmosphere was dominated by carbon dioxide.

He said that the study made clear that life on Mars would have had a major influence on the climate.

Is there a place where you can find traces of this past life? The Jezero crater is on the north-western edge of Isidis Planitia and is where the Perseverance rover is collecting rocks for return to Earth.

There is a chance that life could still exist deep within Mars.

He wondered if Mars could still be inhabited by organisms. Where would you say it is?