Mars’ climate has recently been active

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Friday , April 25, 2008 at 2231 hrs The climate on the Red Planet has been much more dynamic than previously believed, suggests a study that could have implications for the life-on-Mars argument by strengthening the case for liquid water. “We have gone from seeing Mars as a dead planet for three-plus billion years to one that has been alive in recent times,” said Jay Dickson, a research analyst in the department of geological sciences at Brown University in the United States and lead author of the study that appears in the May edition of Geology. “(The finding) has changed our perspective from a planet that has been dry and dead to one that is icy and active,” he said. Based on the study of images taken last year by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, scientists at Brown University believe that Mars has gone through multiple Ice Ages— episodes in its recent past in which the planet’s mid-latitudes were covered by glaciers that disappeared with changes in the Red Planet.