Researchers reckon it might be possible to turn Mars into a planet that can support Earth’s life forms… and even human cities!

It would mean transforming the harsh, dry planet into a warmer one, with stable supplies of water, breathable air and a healthy ecosystem. This process is called ‘terraforming’. In a new study published in the Nature Astronomy journal, scientists say that terraforming Mars was impossible 30 years ago, but the latest tech has made it “a real possibility”.

They add that Mars was able to support life in the past, so making it fit for life again could be seen as the “ultimate environmental restoration challenge”. Not only that, but testing new ideas on Mars could also teach us lessons about how to solve our own climate troubles here on Earth.

Robin Wordsworth, from Harvard University, said: “Life is precious – we know of nowhere else in the universe where it exists. We have a duty to conserve it on Earth, but also to consider how we could begin to [spread] it to other worlds.”

However, some aren’t sure whether we should transform Mars. Changing it, they argue, could mean we lose the chance to learn more about the planet’s history, and how planets form.

At any rate, terraforming Mars fully could take hundreds, or thousands, or years.