While geological evidence points to the presence of liquid water on Mars during the Noachian epoch (the period from 4.5 to 3.5 billion years ago), determining the temperature of that water – a factor critical to the probability of its ability to support early life – has hitherto been impossible. Recently, however, researchers at California Institute of Technology Geological and Planetary Sciences have derived a precipitation temperature of 18 °C from carbonate minerals found in the 4.1 billion-year-old Allan Hills 84001 (ALH84001) meteorite. Although this ancient aquifer’s temperature was relatively mild, the researchers note that their findings do not necessarily demonstrate habitability.
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