Nasa 'cradle of alien life' discovery on Mars could prove the Red Planet was home to extraterrestrial organisms

NASA has made an astonishing discovery which could PROVE life once existed on Mars.

It has spotted what appears to be the remnants of ancient underwater volcanos in a basin in a region called Eridania, in southern Mars.

A Nasa image of Mars, which is believed to have once been covered with gigantic oceans

These structures may have once been similar to the volcanic "vents" at the bottom of oceans here on Earth.

Some scientists believe life on our planet originated near these vents, which spew out hot water and a soup of chemicals which may have led to the origin of the first lifeforms on our planet.

"Even if we never find evidence that there's been life on Mars, this site can tell us about the type of environment where life may have begun on Earth," said Paul Niles of NASA's Johnson Space Center.

"Volcanic activity combined with standing water provided conditions that were likely similar to conditions that existed on Earth at about the same time - when early life was evolving here."

Currently, there is no water on Mars. Neither is there any volcanic activity.

But it's believed the new discovery shows that volcanos were once active beneath a deep ancient ocean some 3.7 billion years.

A diagram showing the size of the ancient sea, which is found in a region of Mars called Eridania

This graphic shows what the sea might have looked like. The volcanos which may have been home to alien lifeforms can be seen at the bottom

The researchers believe the ancient Martian sea held about 50,000 cubic miles of water, which would have been "as much as all other lakes and seas on ancient Mars combined and about nine times more than the combined volume of all of North America's Great Lakes".

"This site gives us a compelling story for a deep, long-lived sea," Niles added.

RED, BUT NOT DEAD Life DID exist on Mars and alien lifeforms may once have thrived on the Martian surface, shock discovery suggests

"It is evocative of the deep-sea hydrothermal environments on Earth, similar to environments where life might be found on other worlds - life that doesn't need a nice atmosphere or temperate surface, but just rocks, heat and water."

Scientists believe life on Mars may have been forced underground when a natural disaster turned the Red Planet into a "frigid desert".

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