Researchers say they are finding evidence for recent volcanic and glacial activity on Mars - which could establish conditions that could support life on the Red Planet.(Photo Source: CRIENGLISH.com/AFP/NASA)

(Photo Source: CRIENGLISH.com/AFP/NASA)

    BEIJING, Dec. 23 -- Photographs taken from an European Mars Express Orbiter hint that volcanic activities may still exist on the mysterious red planet.

    Pictures from the European Space Agency's Mars Express Orbiter shows geologically recent volcanic activity in the summit craters of five Martian volcanoes, with some areas showing activity as recently as 4 million years ago.

    Recent is a relative term - in this case 4 million years which amounts to the most recent 1% of Martian history. But the evidence implies that some Martian volcanoes may still be active. If so, they could serve as a source of heat, nutrients, and melt water for simple microbial life.

    "I suspect that as we get more spacecraft in orbit that it will increase the chances of seeing some kind of active eruption," Jim Head was quoted as saying by AP. He is a professor of geological sciences at Brown University in Providence and one of more than 40 scientists who contributed to an analysis of the images to be published in this week's issue of the British journal Nature.

    In the last few years researchers had found abundant evidence of glacial activity at the Martian surface and signs that water flowed there in the past ¡ª most recently with the United States' twin robotic rovers still exploring Mars.

    The Mars Express orbiter has been taking three-dimensional images of the Martian surface since January. The European Space Agency expects that by the end of its mission late next year Mars Express will have photographed the entire planet to a resolution of 33 feet.

    The researchers determined the age of the Martian volcanic features by counting craters on the Martian surface. When a volcano erupts and spreads lava over the landscape, it creates a smooth surface that is gradually pocked with craters as the planet is bombarded over the millennia by asteroids, comets and meteors.

    The rate of that bombardment has been established using a number of different methods. So by counting the number of craters in a patch of Martian terrain researchers can tell how recently it was resurfaced by volcanic activity. Enditem

    (Agencies)