Planetologists have studied traces of organic molecules in one of the ancient Martian meteorites found in Antarctica in December 1984, allowing them to suggest the existence of life on Mars four billion years ago.

The molecules have a structure similar to amino acids and other nitrogen-containing substances, the article says. Experts believe there are two explanations for this - the substances formed on Mars or arrived on its surface from outside along with falling meteorites and comets. "In any case, this finding shows that the young Mars was more like the Earth and was not red, but another blue planet," said one of the authors of the article, planetary scientist Atsuko Kobayashi from the Tokyo Institute of Technology.