Despite being Earth's nearest planetary neighbour, Mars is a cold and desolate planet. But scientists think it wasn't always like that. And now, new data collated by China's space missions have finally been looked into by researchers which give extra weight to the idea that Mars was once a very wet planet,

Scientists have discovered that Mars once had beaches. While the past presence of water on the Red Planet is no longer in doubt, experts have now found layers of rock beneath Mars' surface, suggesting the likely existence of an ancient ocean.