New study asserts that life could have begun on Mars and later headed to Earth

Life on Mars is no future endeavor, it’s a past event.

In a thought-provoking new study published in the science journal Frontiers of Microbiology, Japanese researchers hypothesize that life might have originated on the Red Planet — or beyond — and then hitched a ride on an Earth-bound projectile.

The report sparked new debate regarding the concept of panspermia — lifeforms existing across the universe that have been scatted by planetoids, space dust, asteroids and even spaceships.

Mars is cited as a viable life source because it was once potentially habitable with a large hemispheric ocean hundreds of millions years ago. Virtually all current water on Mars is thick, underground ice.

But the scientists’ greatest challenge has been proving that bacteria could survive the long, interstellar trek.

An experiment revealed that with the help of some protective shielding, some bacteria was durable enough to survive exposure of ultraviolet radiation in deep space for as long as 10 years — enough theoretical time to hop from Mars to Earth.

For their experiment, the research team employed a hardy bacteria capable of tolerating enormous quantities of radiation, reported CBC News.

They determined that a bacteria colony larger than one millimeter could survive up to eight years in space.

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Akihiko Yamagishi, a Tokyo University life sciences professor, created a test to ascertain the endurance of microorganisms on the International Space Station. He observed that the microbes could withstand the interplanetary odyssey.

“It increases the probability of the process, (making it) much higher”, said Yamagishi. “Some think that life is very rare and happened only once in the universe, while others think that life can happen on every suitable planet. If panspermia is possible, life must exist much more often than we previously thought.”