When Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon’s surface in July 1969, it was not only a giant leap for mankind, but was also thought to have been the first time the satellite had ever hosted life.

The lunar world was said to be a "dead rock", lacking the volcanic activity needed to create an atmosphere and without sufficient gravity to trap the molecules needed for microbes to evolve.

But now, scientists from Birkbeck, University of London and Washington State University have found that conditions on the lunar surface could have supported simple lifeforms around 4 billion years ago - roughly the same time that life was getting started on Earth.