Evidence collected by the Mars rover has found that the Red Planet has lost almost all of its atmosphere.
The original gases which once filled the planet have escaped into space, scientists revealed at a European geoscience meeting in Vienna, Austria, on Monday.
Nasa's Curiosity rover, which has been sending back data for analysis by academics from the University of Leicester, found that up to 90 per cent of the gases had dissipated into space in Mars' 4.5-billion-year life span.
It means the surface would have had a warmer, wetter, more habitable environment, said rover scientist Sushil Atreya of the University of Michigan.
For the rest of April, the Nasa and University of Leicester team are unable to send commands to the one-ton robot as Mars and the Earth are on opposite sides of the Sun.
The planetary positioning means that radio signals sent to the rover may be affected by solar flares and charged particles from the Sun which could scramble data.
During this time, the team is presenting its latest Martian finding to the global scientific community.
Dr John Bridges, from the University of Leicester, has been at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, in Houston, USA.
