After shock-compression experiments on whitlockite samples that simulated the conditions of ejecting meteorites from Mars, the researchers then studied their microscopic makeup with X-ray experiments with top-of-the-line machinery.

Martin Kunz, a staff scientist at Berkeley Lab's ALS who participated in X-ray studies of the samples, said: "This is important for deducing how much water could have been on Mars, and whether the water was from Mars itself rather than comets or meteorites."

Their experiments showed that whitlockite can become dehydrated from such shocks, forming merrillite, a mineral that is commonly found in Martian meteorites but does not occur naturally on Earth.

Study co-lead Professor Oliver Tschauner, from the University of Nevada, said: "If even a part of merrillite had been whitlockite before, it changes the water budget of Mars dramatically."

Because whitlockite can be dissolved in water and contains phosphorous, an essential element for life on Earth, the study further increases the chances there could have been life on Mars.