Ancient Hot Water Discovery On Mars Indicator Of Its Habitable Past

Sydney: Australian researchers have discovered the oldest direct evidence of hot water activity on Mars, revealing that the planet may have once been habitable.

In a study published on Saturday, a team led by researchers from Curtin University in Western Australia analysed a 4.45 billion-year-old zircon grain from the famous Martian meteorite NWA7034, also known as Black Beauty, that was found in the Sahara Desert in 2011.

The researchers found that the grain of zircon, a type of mineral, contained geochemical fingerprints of water-rich fluids, suggesting that water was present during early Martian magmatic activity.

Aaron Cavosie, a co-author of the study from Curtin's School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said that the discovery would open up new avenues for understanding ancient Martian hydrothermal systems, as well as the planet's past capacity to support life.