Prolonged Drought May Have Killed Off Martian Lifeforms

If lifeforms ever had a chance to develop on the Red Planet, they may all be dead now, due to the fact that the planet has been plagued by intense drought for at least 600 million years. This actually makes a lot of sense, even when considering that water-ice still exists at Mars' poles.

At this point, the surface may simply be too harsh to support the existence of any type of life, a new study learned. That is not to say that bacteria or similar organisms may have gone extinct in the underground as well, but their chances of enduring on the surface are very close to zero.

The same team also adds that Mars' wet spell may have lasted for only about 5,000 years, which could be too short of a time frame for life to develop in the first place. On Earth, it took about 700 million years for the first lifeforms to develop after the planet was formed, Space reports.

What the work suggests is that we may be forced to look for green aliens underneath the Martian surface, perhaps right at the poles, where water-ice still endures under a thin layer of sand.