Ancient microbes caused a temperature change on Mars which made the planet less habitable which could have caused their demise according to a new climate modeling study suggests.
In reports simple microbes that feed on methane and hydrogen, may have flourished in Mars approximately 3.7 billion years ago at the same time as primitive life was in the root form in Earth's oceans
In the same time on Earth the appearance of simple life slowly made the environment more suitable for more sophisticated life forms, exactly the opposite was observed on Mars.
The study found that unlike Earth the methane released by these microbes slowly heated Mars but Mars turned cooler, drove the microbes to deeper and more dense layers in the crust to stay alive.
On Mars, impact of greenhouse gases slows down and temperature is between -10° C to 20° C. Mars needed those greenhouse gasses to ensure an appropriate temperature for living.
However, when the first microbes began eating hydrogen and generating methane it actually reduced the temperature-raising climate which made old Mars slowly so cold that it was no longer hospitable.
However on Earth it is opposite. Methane is the gas that functions as a powerful greenhouse gas on Earth which makes it warmer.
As the planet began to cool , more of its water was turned into ice and the temperature fell below 70°F (- 60 ° C) and pushed the microbes farther and further into the crust in warmer temperatures.
Although initially, microbes could be able to live comfortably under Martian sandy crust, after hundreds million years, they were forced to hide in depth of over 0.6 mile (1 km) as the model revealed
In the next phase, researchers would like to know if these ancient microbes still reside anywhere within Mars crust. Satellites have discovered methane traces in Mars thin atmosphere source.