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We always hoped the moment Martians were found in Britain would be, you know, a little more exciting than this. But while we envisioned little green men and world domination, it was inevitable that science was always going to have a more, well, real alternative.

Scientists at NASA say recent tests on a meteorite from London's Natural History Museum show what is believed to be a fossilised colony of Martian microbacteria -- a UK first.

Using a scanning electron microscope they took an incredibly close look at slices of the meteorite, which fell from Mars, landing in Egypt in 1911. They claim the bumpy surface suggests a fossilised colony of micro-bacteria – which is indeed, a simple form of life.

While the Martian micro-bacteria sample will now go on show at the Natural History Museum, they won't be letting Kim and Aggie of 'How Clean Is Your House' fame, anywhere near it. The NASA scientists believe Martian bacteria first arrived on earth 13,000 years ago on a meteorite which smashed into the Antarctic. And if you think that is a long time ago, they added the Antarctic meteorite was blasted out of Mars 16 million years earlier.