According to the researchers, ancient water trickling through Mars' rocks could have triggered a series of chemical reactions, converting CO2 into methane and trapping the carbon

Mars’ Early Thick Atmosphere Could Be Locked Up in the Planet’s Clay Surface Researchers from MIT suggest that Mars' once thick atmosphere may be trapped within the planet's vast clay deposits, potentially storing significant amounts of carbon dioxide as methane.

Now researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US believe the answer may be “hiding in plain sight”, within the planet’s iron-rich clay. They propose that much of the missing Martian atmosphere was absorbed by the planet’s crust – in the form of methane – some 3.5 billion years ago.

Was there once life on Mars? Scientists have been pondering this question for decades. Now, a recent discovery on the Red Planet is lending some credence to the possibility—or likelihood—that there was.

New research suggests that Mars' missing atmosphere, long a mystery for planetary scientists, could be hiding within the planet's clay-rich surface. This surprising discovery sheds light on how carbon dioxide (CO2) from the early Martian atmosphere might have been chemically trapped in clays,

When Mars lost its atmosphere billions of years ago, it transformed from a planet that could have supported life into a cold desert world.But exactly what happened to the thick air that once surrounded the red planet has puzzled scientists for decades.