According to a study by the Institut de Biologie de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure (IBENS) in Paris, using computer simulations, ancient microbes on Morse made the planet less habitable, which could lead to their own extinction due to climate change.
The study suggests that the simplest microorganisms that consumed hydrogen and emitted carbon dioxide could well have flourished on Mars about 3.7 billion years ago, at about the same time as primitive life began to develop in Earth's oceans. Nevertheless, if on Earth this led to the emergence of more complex life forms, then on Mars everything developed according to a more pessimistic scenario. If on Earth the methane released gradually helped to warm the atmosphere, then on Mars the temperature gradually dropped, which could “drive” microbes lower and lower into the bowels of the planet until they completely disappeared.
According to French scientists, during this period, Mars could have had a rather warm and humid climate, from -10 to +20 degrees Celsius, there were rivers, lakes, and, possibly, oceans, but the atmosphere was very different from the earth. It was just as dense, but richer in carbon dioxide and hydrogen, both of which created a greenhouse effect on the planet.
However, ancient microbes could change the balance by producing methane, which caused the climate on the planet farthest from the Sun to become colder and "inhospitable". The fact is that the combination of hydrogen and carbon dioxide interacting with each other in the atmosphere creates special conditions that contribute to warming - this is not the case on Earth, since the local atmosphere is not as rich in these gases as Mars at one time. As a result, hydrogen was replaced by methane, which is less suitable for creating a greenhouse effect, which could lead to a cooling of the climate.
As a result of the cooling, the water on the planet turned into ice, and the temperature on the surface fell below -60 degrees Celsius, forcing microbes to descend deeper into the bowels of the planet, where heat remained. In accordance with the simulation results, if at first, the microorganisms lived directly under the sandy surface, then later they had to sink to a depth of more than 1 km.
The institute has identified three locations where traces of ancient microbes could most likely be preserved under the surface of the planet - in the Lake Lake crater, where the Perseverance rover is now hunting for samples of the ships, as well as in two low-lying plains - Hellas and Isis - at the "bottom" of such lowlands the climate is usually much warmer than in the highlands and it is here that it would be easiest to find possible traces of life.
Finally, the researchers admit that microorganisms can still live in the planet's crust. It is assumed that the almost disappeared atmosphere can no longer “feed” microorganisms, so they could switch to other sources, for example, certain geological processes can provide them with energy sources for life, like the same hydrogen and carbon dioxide. It remains to establish "oases" suitable for their habitation.
Simulation data also brought another, no doubt disturbing result. Perhaps life in general often appears in space, and then simply destroys itself - there are quite a lot of ingredients for its occurrence in the universe, but even a primitive biosphere, as it turned out, can theoretically self-destruct.
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