"Water was present on the surface of Mars four billion years ago but lasted for only a few hundred million years, according to principal investigator Jean-Pierre Bibring from the University of Paris.
'It shows that there was water, but not in the form of a large ocean', Bibring told AFP, adding that the Martian crust was hydrated in the same manner in the north and south.
The conclusions contradict those of an American team, who in a study published June 13 in Nature Geoscience journal said a vast ocean covered a third of the surface 3.5 billion years ago.
'Mars had already lost its atmosphere 3.5 billion years ago, water was no longer stable in the liquid state on the surface,' said Bibring."
Principal Investigator Bibring seems like a fellow who is pretty sure of himself.
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