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All you need to know as study claims humans 'may have come from Mars'

Groundbreaking research has shown how the single-celled microbes that would eventually evolve into all life on Earth could have survived a journey from the Red Planet on an asteroid

[An image depicts the planet Mars, prominently displaying its characteristic reddish hue and dark surface features, observed from a distance in space.]

Could life have originated on Mars? (Image: Getty Images)

NEED TO KNOW: New study claims humans 'may have come from Mars'

• Humans could be descendants of Martians, according to mind-blowing new research that suggests life on Earth originally came from the Red Planet.
• Scientists at John Hopkins University have proven that tough microbes could survive the brutal journey from Mars to Earth on asteroids. The groundbreaking study tested a super-resilient bacterium called Deinococcus radiodurans by blasting it with tiny bullets at 300mph speeds.
• The pressure was as intense as placing an elephant on the tip of a pencil, but the hardy Chilean bug survived every test. Lead researcher Dr Lily Zhao admitted: "We expected it to be dead at that first pressure."
• "We started shooting it faster and faster. We kept trying to kill it, but it was really hard to kill," she told the Telegraph. The equipment used in the experiment actually broke down before the bacteria did.
• The study supports the lithopanspermia hypothesis - the theory that life can hop between planets when asteroid crashes fling microbes across space. Until now, scientists thought the journey would be too harsh for any life form to survive.
• Dr Zhao concluded: "Maybe we're Martians" - opening up the incredible possibility that all life on Earth started with hitchhiking microbes from Mars.
• READ THE FULL STORY: 'Humans may have come from Mars' according to ground-breaking new theory