This NASA computer-generated image depicts part of Mars at the boundary between darkness and daylight, with an area including Gale Crater, beginning to catch morning light. Australian scientists who modelled conditions on Mars to examine how much of the red planet was habitable said that "large regions" could sustain life.

Australian scientists who modelled conditions on Mars to examine how much of the red planet was habitable said that "large regions" could sustain life.

Charley Lineweaver's team, from the Australian National University, compared models of temperature and pressure conditions on Earth with those on  to estimate how much of the  was liveable for Earth-like organisms.

While just one percent of Earth's volume — from core to  – was occupied by life, Lineweaver said their world-first modelling showed three percent of Mars was habitable, though most of it was underground.

"What we tried to do, simply, was take almost all of the information we could and put it together and say 'is the big picture consistent with there being life on Mars?'," the  told AFP on Monday.

"And the simple answer is yes… There are large regions of Mars that are compatible with ."

The average surface temperature on Mars, Earth's nearest neighbour, is minus 63 degrees Celsius

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This NASA image, taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2010, shows the west-facing side of an impact crater in the mid-latitudes of Mars' northern hemisphere. Australian scientists who modelled conditions on Mars to examine how much of the red planet was habitable said that "large regions" could sustain life.

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