Moon may have been habitable 4 billion years ago
New research claims that the moon could have supported life during two windows of its history, four and 3.5 billion years ago.
11:13, UK, Tuesday 24 July 2018
060280 01: Astronaut David Scott gives salute beside the U.S. flag July 30, 1971 on the moon during the Apollo 15 mission. (Photo by NASA/Liaison)
Image: Scientists believe there could have been life on the moon millions of years ago
The moon could have supported life billions of years ago, according to new research.
A study published in the journal Astrobiology has found that simple lifeforms could have survived on the lunar surface during two periods 3.5 and 4 billion years ago.
The study was conducted by two scientists, Professor Dirk Schulze-Makuch, an astrobiologist at Washington State University, and Professor Ian Crawford of Birkbeck, University of London.
They believe the moon must have been spewing out so much super-heated volatile gas, including water vapour, during these periods that it could have sustained life.
"If liquid water and a significant atmosphere were present on the early moon for long periods of time, we think the lunar surface would have been at least transiently habitable," Professor Schulze-Makuch said.
Earth rises above the horizon of the moon, as seen by the crew of the Apollo 8 mission, December 1968. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Image: Organisms could have been transported from Earth to the moon via a meteorite
It is also believed that the early moon had a magnetosphere - a magnetic field which would have deflected the sun's deadly electromagnetic radiation - similar to Earth's.
Professor Schulze-Makuch says life could have originated in the same way it did on Earth - with self-replicating molecules becoming more and more complex while continuing to reproduce.
However, he believes the more likely scenario is that life would have been brought in by a meteorite.
The earliest evidence for life on Earth is of fossilised bacteria that are between 3.5 and 3.8 billion years old - a time when the solar system was being bombarded by meteorites.
Professor Schulze-Makuch believes it is possible a meteroite could have blasted off Earth and transported similar life to the moon.
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"It looks very much like the moon was habitable at this time," Professor Schulze-Makuch said.
"There could have actually been microbes thriving in water pools on the moon until the surface became dry and dead."
