https://www.universetoday.com/145976/when-did-mars-lose-its-global-magnetic-field/ When Did Mars Lose its Global Magnetic Field? Billions of years ago, Mars was once a much different place than the cold and desiccated place it is today. Basically, it had a thicker, warmer atmosphere and liquid water flowing on its surface, and maybe even life! The reason for this is because, like Earth, Mars had a planetary magnetic field that was generated by action in its core. But when that field disappeared, things began to change drastically! For years, scientists believed that this field disappeared over 4 billion years ago, causing Mars atmosphere to be slowly stripped away by solar wind. But according to new research led by the University of British Columbia (UBC) has placed new constraints on when this magnetic field disappeared, indicating that Mars’ magnetic field existed sooner (and laster hundreds of millions of years longer) than previously thought. The study that describes their findings, which recently appeared in the journal Science Advances, was led by Anna Mittelholz – a postdoctoral fellow with UBC’s Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences. She was joined by Catherine Johnson, a Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute (PSI), and an international team of researchers. more at link................
Data we have back from Mars via the orbiters and rovers NASA has sent there include......*photographs that show reasonably conclusive evidence that rivers and Oceans once probably existed there.......* The momentous findings by the Phoenix probe, in identifying and verifying the existence of water ice just below the surface... So while Mars was at one time wet, and while it also had a magnetic field, and while it also seems likely that the conditions for life were at one time present, we have yet to find that life. The closest we have come to confirming any past or present life was the meteorite dubbed ALH84001 found in Antarctica. Will we find evidence of past life on Mars? Will we one day find evidence of life elsewhere in our solar system, probably places like Europa, or Enceledus?
