Calcium-Rich Carbonates Underneath Martian Rocks Sign Alien Life Existed, Researchers Claim

In the recent years, discoveries concerning Mars have led people to believe that alien life could have existed on the red planet.

Studies show that water once flowed on Mars and that the planet was devastated by humongous tsunamis. But recent findings suggest that iron and calcium-rich carbonates were found underneath the surface of the planet intensifying theories about the former existence of alien life on Mars.

A recent study was conducted by the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Life Institute (SETI). Researchers analyzed the data about the planet and found out that there are deposits of iron and calcium rich carbonates underneath the surface of Mars. This finding confirms that water once existed on the planet. Add warmer temperature to the equation, researchers believe that it can be a good recipe to harbor alien life on the planet billions of years ago.

"Identification of these ancient carbonates and clays on Mars represents a window into history when the climate on Mars was very different from the cold and dry desert of today," said Dr. Janice Bishop from SETI, in an interview with Express in the UK.

The sightings of carbonate deposits on Mars were rare during the past, it is the new study which states that various sites are found to have deposits underneath the red planet including the Lucaya crater where '3 billion-year-old carbonates' were discovered buried under 5 km of lava and Martian rocks and the Huygens basin where iron and calcium-rich carbonate rocks were also found.

"If carbonates were pervasive 4 billion years ago, it's possible that the environment was very microbe-friendly at that time," said Janice Bishop, an astrobiologist at SETI and co-author on the study, in an interview with Gizmodo.

Although there are markers which suggest that water once flowed on Mars, scientists and researchers believe that in order to find out whether or not alien life existed on the planet, they will have to find out the minerals embedded underneath the rocky surface of the planet.

According to the same report, the study focused on analyzing the data collected by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Researchers say that one of the most important findings of their study is the discovery of thick carbonate deposits across the popular Huygens basin than what was originally believed.

Researchers are now suggesting that fossil hunting on the red planet will help answer the question everyone is asking if aliens did exist on Mars before. Researchers also admitted that the study is focused on 'historically' relevant alien life, recognizing the fact that there can never be any living thing on that planet today.