• Question: Have you ever got a moon rock

    Asked by 275spah49 to Hannah, Lucy, Phil, rochellevelho, Stephen on 10 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Lucy Kissick

      Lucy Kissick answered on 10 Mar 2017:

      I once worked with a woman who looked at moon rock. I was at my desk and she just put a little glass vial with some dust inside in my hand. It took me two seconds to realise what it was and go “!!!!!!!”. Holding a little piece of that thing I see in the sky at night is a breathtaking experience.

    • Photo: Phil Sutton

      Phil Sutton answered on 10 Mar 2017:

      Hmmmmm well what if the moon and the earth had a common origin? Could we hold rocks here on earth and treat them like moon rocks? Both the moon and the earth came from a collision of two planets in the very early solar system. Afterwards the material grow into two new bodies, one the earth and the smaller one the moon. So they are made of fairly similar stuff which has been confirmed by studying samples.

    • Photo: Hannah Sargeant

      Hannah Sargeant answered on 12 Mar 2017:

      Yes! I get to work with Moon soil for my research but it has to be carefully handled. I am only allowed 10g from NASA because it is so rare. They store it in a special atmosphere to stop our atmosphere reacting with it and changing it too much.

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