Mars' atmosphere once contained MORE oxygen than Earth until it was blasted away by a collision with another world the size of Pluto.
According to NASA' s Curiosity rover, there is a chance that Mars once harbored life.
NASA's Dr Chris Webster said:
"As Mars became a planet and its magma ocean solidified, catastrophic outgassing occurred, while volatiles were delivered by impact of comets and other smaller bodies."
"Solar wind and the possible impact by a Pluto-sized body is thought to have stripped much of the initial early atmosphere. Since then the atmosphere has developed as a balance between volcanic injection and loss to space."
Earth telescopes had seemed to detect the presence of methane in Mars, an indicator that there may have been life on the planet, but Curiosity has failed to find any, so far. Methane is mainly a by-product of life. On Earth it is produced by decaying plants and animal digestion, although it can also be produced by non-biological processes.
Mars atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide, nitrogen and argon. Earth's atmosphere is a mix of nitrogen and oxygen.
NASA Mars Exploration - http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/
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