(ORDO NEWS) — Neil Armstrong took a sample of the lunar surface with him before returning to Earth again during the Apollo 11 mission. This event has become incredibly important for science.
The Apollo program is a US space project that was founded by NASA to land humans on the lunar surface. After the Eagle landed on the lunar surface, Armstrong and his colleague Buzz Aldrin landed on July 20, 1969. For more than two hours, the astronauts collected rock samples, and also planted the US flag on the surface of the satellite. Only after that did they return to Earth.
During the entire existence of the Apollo program, 382 kilograms of rock samples were delivered to Earth, which allowed scientists to learn more about the Moon and its geological history. All samples are stored at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Texas.
Biologist Joe Hanson visited the vault and featured it in his documentary, Apollo’s Most Important Discovery. Ryan Zeigler also added that what’s inside is priceless. The vault contains about 70% of the moon rocks that are on Earth. The stones that are stored there have allowed to unravel the centuries-old mystery.
Before sealing the sample boxes, Neil Armstrong felt that one was too empty and poured earth from the lunar surface into it. As a result, scientists found small white stones in this sample, which they mistook for anorthosite.
The study of the samples showed that the moon is quite old. For billions of years, it has collided with space objects of various sizes. As a result, the satellite’s surface turned into a material that was named “regolith”. This is exactly what Neil Armstrong accidentally brought back as an additional sample.
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