When Mars was being bombarded with giant asteroids and comets over four billion years ago, the giant space rocks were enhancing the climate. A new study from the University of Colorado Boulder says that the comets and asteroids actually enhanced the climate enough to make Mars’ environment more conductive to life for a time. According to NBC News: The bombardment occurred during a period known as the Late Heavy Bombardment, which was about 3.9 billion years ago when the solar system was developing. CU-Boulder Professor Stephen Mojzsis said if early Mars was as barren and cold as it is today, massive asteroid and comet impacts would have produced enough heat to melt subsurface ice. The impacts would have produced areas of regional hydrothermal systems on Mars similar to those in Yellowstone National Park, which today harbor chemically powered microbes, some of which can survive boiling in hot springs or inhabiting water acidic enough to dissolve nails. In addition to the hydrothermal regions on Mars’ fractured, melted crust, a massive impact could have temporarily increased atmospheric pressure. This would cause the planet to heat up enough to “re-start” a dormant water cycle, Mojzsis says. The study, which used the Janus supercomputer cluster [...]