Did life exist in hot water on Mars? A 4.45-billion-year-old crystal reveals the planet had water from the beginning

In a thrilling discovery, which can influence future studies scientists have uncovered what appears to be the oldest direct evidence of hot water flowing on Mars in its ancient past. The recent discovery suggests that despite its barren and dry landscape today, the Red Planet may have been capable of supporting life in its distant history.

The evidence of water came from a well-known Martian meteorite, NWA7034, which was found in the Sahara Desert in 2011. Due to its dark, polished surface, this meteorite is commonly referred to as ‘Black Beauty’.

At around 2 billion years old, Black Beauty is the second oldest Martian meteorite ever discovered.

A team from Curtin University found something even older within it: a 4.45-billion-year-old zircon grain that contains signs of fluids rich in water. Aaron Cavosie, a member of the Curtin team from the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, believes this breakthrough will offer new insights into hydrothermal systems linked to volcanic magma activity on Mars.

“We used nano-scale geochemistry to identify elemental traces of hot water on Mars from 4.45 billion years ago,” Cavosie said. “Hydrothermal systems played a critical role in the emergence of life on Earth, and our findings suggest that Mars also had water — an essential ingredient for habitability — during its early crust formation.”

The team identified key elements — iron, aluminium, yttrium and sodium — in the zircon grain through nano-scale imaging and spectroscopy, which reveals the chemical composition of materials. These elements were incorporated into the zircon as it formed, indicating the presence of water during Mars’ early magmatic activity.

Water on Red Planet

Scientists are of the view that liquid water was abundant on the Red Planet around 4.1 billion years ago as evidence of ancient riverbeds and lakebeds have been found on Mars. However, this new discovery suggests water may have existed even earlier. During Mars' Noachian period, the Martian surface was heavily bombarded by asteroids.

The first evidence of water on Mars was discovered in the 1970s when NASA's Mariner 9 spacecraft captured images of river valleys on the Martian surface. Subsequent missions, including Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Express, found widespread hydrated clay minerals, which require water to form.

Most of the evidence for water on Mars comes from materials and terrains older than 3 billion years. After that period, there is limited evidence of stable liquid water on the planet’s surface.

Scientists believe that Mars lost its water billions of years ago, when its atmosphere was stripped away by intense solar radiation from the Sun. Without an atmosphere to protect it water vapour escaped into space causing the planet to dry up.

While is unclear if surface water remained stable during this time, but it remains a possibility. However, one thing is certain that Mars’s crust much like Earth’s contained water shortly after its formation — an essential factor for supporting habitability.