Molten Mars Too Hot to Handle Life

The surface of Mars was molten for more than 100 million years after it formed, preventing any early life evolving on the planet, said researchers.

Their findings, based on analysis of rare Martian meteorites at NASA's Johnson Space Center in the U.S., are published in Nature Geoscience.

Co-author Craig O'Neill, of Macquarie University's Department of Earth and Planetary Science, says the study overturns previous thought that the surface of Mars cooled within a few thousand years.

Instead they found the planet remained a molten ball due to a "hyper-heated steamy atmosphere" that kept the surface temperature above more than 1000 degrees Celsius (1832 degrees Fahrenheit) for more than 100 million years.

O'Neill says this effectively sterilized the planet making it unlikely that any life form could evolve.