---
title: "Researchers: Mars Might Have Enough Oxygen For Underground Life"
description: "New research shows that the Red Planet could even have enough oxygen to support life now — as long as it lived underground."
date: "2018-10-22"
modified: "2018-10-22"
authors:
  - name: "Jon Christian"
    job_title: "Executive Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/researchers-mars-might-have-enough-oxygen-for-underground-life"
categories:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "Mars"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "extraterrestrial life"
  - "mars"
  - "martian life"
  - "the digest"
---

# Researchers: Mars Might Have Enough Oxygen For Underground Life

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/oxygen-mars.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Aynur\_zakirov\</em\>*

## Game of Life

The past decade has brought more and more signs that Mars [might once have](<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/did-mars-once-harbor-deep-sea-cradles-of-life/>) harbored life.

Now, new research shows that the Red Planet could even have enough oxygen to support Martian life now — as long as it lived underground.

## Oxygen Z

That's according to a [new paper](<https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-018-0243-0>) in *Nature Geoscience* written by a team from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. According to the team's calculations, briny water under the planet's surface could hold enough oxygen to support aerobic Martian life — microbes, according to one author, or even simple animals such as sponges.

"The last 40 years, people didn’t think oxygen would matter at all for life on Mars," lead author Vlada Stamenkovic [told *Popular Mechanics*](<https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/a23940742/mars-subsurface-oxygen-sustain-life/>). "We wanted to change that dogma."

## Bug Hunt

It'll be tough to test the paper's conclusions, *Popular Mechanics* points out, because the Mars rover missions avoid areas where there could be water — they don't want to accidentally taint any life there with rugged bacteria that survived the journey from Earth.

But the findings do suggest that one day we could find out that our solar system is more populated than we once thought.

**READ MORE:** [Mars May Have Enough Oxygen to Sustain Subsurface Life](<https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/a23940742/mars-subsurface-oxygen-sustain-life/>) \[*Popular Mechanics*\]

***More on settling Mars: [Scientists Need to Solve These Two Mysteries to Find Life on Mars](<https://futurism.com/find-life-mars-extraterrestrial>)***

## Author
I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/jonchristian.net>)