The red planet was once BLUE: Mars was covered by oceans 300 meters deep 4.5 billion years ago

Now a desolate red desert, a new study has claimed that Mars was once actually mostly blue.

While researchers have long agreed that our red neighbor once held water, just how much water it had was a matter of debate.

Now a new study has revealed that 4.5 billion years ago Mars was covered in oceans 984 feet (300 meters) deep.

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen hope these findings could bring humanity one step closer to answering a vital question: Did Mars ever have life?

The study estimates that the oceans covered the entire planet and could have ranged from 984 feet (300 meters) to 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) in depth.

Given that the planet is about half the size of Earth, Professor Martin Bizzarro of the Center for Star and Planet Formation says that in comparison there is actually very little water on our planet.

This water was brought to Mars by ice-filled asteroids, according to Professor Bizzarro.

In addition to water, icy asteroids also brought biologically relevant molecules such as amino acids to Mars.

Amino acids are used when DNA and RNA form bases that contain everything a cell needs.

Professor Bizzarro explained: ‘It happened in the first 100 million years of Mars.

“After this period, something catastrophic happened to potential life on Earth.

“There is believed to have been a gigantic collision between Earth and another planet the size of Mars.

“It was an energetic collision that formed the Earth-Moon system and, at the same time, wiped out all potential life on Earth.”

To reach these conclusions, the researchers studied a billion-year-old meteorite.

Speaking to MailOnline, Prof Bizzarro explained that the meteorite formed 4.5 billion years ago and is now ‘a fragment of Mars’ original crust’.

“So it records the history of the bombardments of the planet,” he explained.

Unlike Earth, Mars does not have tectonic plates deep below its surface, as hot molten rock has long cooled to form a rocky mantle.

As a result, the researchers note that the crust remains static, keeping the planet’s surface unchanged.

This allows them to study Mars’ past in a way that would be impossible to do on Earth.

Professor Bizzarro added: ‘Plate tectonics on Earth has erased all evidence of what happened during the first 500 million years of our planet’s history.

“Plates are constantly moving and being recycled and destroyed inside our planet.

“In contrast, Mars has no such plate tectonics that the planet’s surface retains a record of the planet’s earliest history.”

The new study comes shortly after experts claimed ancient microbes could survive for hundreds of millions of years below the surface of Mars in “suspended animation”.

Researchers say a bacterium called Deinococcus radiodurans could survive 280 million years on Mars – nearly 300 times longer than previously thought – if buried 32 feet below the Red Planet’s surface.

D. radiodurans is also known as “Conan the Bacteria” and “Superhero of the Bacterial World” due to its tenacity, which has even earned it the title of “World’s Hardest Known Bacteria” in the Guinness Book of Records.

Like a muscular movie hero, he resists attack from acid baths, high and low temperatures, and even doses of radiation.

Although Conan the bacterium probably does not exist on Mars, researchers believe that an equivalent microorganism could exist on the Red Planet for a similar period.