‘Large parts of Mars are habitable’

LONDON: Planetary scientists have claimed “large regions” of Mars are habitable for terrestrial life.
An international team, led by the Australian National University, compared models of temperature and pressure conditions on Earth with those on Mars to estimate how much of the distant planet was liveable for Earth-like organisms.
While just 1% of Earth’s volume — from core to upper atmosphere — was occupied by life, the scientists said their world-first modelling showed 3% of Mars was habitable , though most of it was underground.
“There are large regions of Mars that are compatible with terrestrial life,” the media quoted Charley Lineweaver, who led the study team, as saying.