AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The discovery of life on Mars is a tad closer than ever before. This month, NASA announced the discovery of signs of life on the red planet in deposits of clay and silt in a canyon. The rocks are rich in organic carbon, sulfur, rust and phosphorous.

“The combination of chemical compounds we found in the Bright Angel formation could have been a rich source of energy for microbial metabolisms,” said Perseverance scientist Joel Hurowitz, lead author of the paper, in a statement.

How did this life survive? New research out of the University of Texas in Austin is revealing how an atmosphere may have formed billions of years ago.

"I think to have such kind of a fundamental question about was Mars habitable three to 4 billion years ago? Was there life there? And how is that po

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