INDEPENDENT.CO.UK

There are “vast hidden magma systems” inside of Mars, scientists say – and it could have major implications for the search for alien life.

The new findings indicate that Mars once had enormous systems of magma like those found on Earth, the researcher say, despite the fact that it does not have the plate tectonics that were thought to be required for them.

That in turn could have major implications for other rocky planets, including suggesting that more of them might be habitable than we thought.

Mars has been described as a “stagnant lid”, because unlike our own Earth its surface is not broken up into tectonic plates that move. Those tectonic plates are responsible for the volcanoes and continents on Earth, which led researchers to believe that Mars could not have its own complex crust.

The new study, however, suggests that Mars could in fact have its own highly evolved crust, produced in a different way.