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NASA Space Technology Scientists believe conditions might be suitable for microbial life in pockets of meltwater formed by so-called cryoconite, dust particles that melt into ice, such as these holes found in Antarctica on Earth. Credit: Hassan Basagic / iStock / Getty Images PlusScientists have discovered small, potentially habitable areas on Mars where life could, in theory, transform sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into oxygen, according to a new NASA study.Though the research doesn't mean photosynthetic aliens are indeed living in these environments now — or even that they were there in the past — the findings provide the U.S. space agency with attractive targets for future searches.For years, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — a spacecraft circling the Red Planet — has seen white material lining dry gullies thought to be dusty water ice. This...