# How Many Moon Rocks Have You Seen? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 27, 2017, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959 "2017-10-27T05:56:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959/1 "2017-10-27T05:56:55Z")
I don’t know why, but I started thinking about moon rocks tonight, seguing into how many I’d seen. Three, I think. One, a small one, was in a museum in Kathmandu. More like a pebble, as I recall. Another small one was in the old royal palace in Luang Prabang, Laos, given to the Lao government or maybe the royal family by Nixon before the country fell to the communists. The palace is a museum now. The third was in the Smithsonian in Washington and a good size. That one was the neatest, because we were allowed to touch it. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959/2 "2017-10-27T06:02:00Z")
I’ve seen millions. Just not here on Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959/3 "2017-10-27T06:04:43Z")
_Ahem_ Refining the question, how many have you seen here on Earth and not just looking at the moon in the sky? ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959/4 "2017-10-27T06:22:29Z")
Here on Earth, two. One in the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto, and the other in the Smithsonian, in Washington DC. I agree that it is pretty cool to be able to touch the moon rock in the Smithsonian–it’s the closest I’ll ever get to the Moon. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959/5 "2017-10-27T06:24:43Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > _Ahem_ Refining the question, how many have you seen here on Earth and not just looking at the moon in the sky? Which one? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959/6 "2017-10-27T06:35:14Z")
My geology department was one of the few (they claim “only” but I doubt it) unis outside the US to get to do geochem on Apollo XI samples, because our equipment was state-of-the-art in '69. There’s still a walnut-sized sample, kept under tighter lock-and-key than our diamond and gold samples (which means it’s in a walk-in safe with _2_ whole locks!). First-years get to see it and even handle it (with cotton gloves). ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959/7 "2017-10-27T06:40:02Z")
I’ve seen the one in the Smithsonian. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959/8 "2017-10-27T07:49:10Z")
Even counting that one up in the sky, still doesn’t add up to a whole lot of moon rocks. The whole moon is just one big rock (at the level of granularity visible from Earth anyway), so I’ve only seen that one. I have, however, seen it many times. ---
**Author:** ![BobBitchin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@BobBitchin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobBitchin)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959/9 "2017-10-27T09:04:42Z")
I think I have seen a few, but I can’t swear to it. I think I remember having astronauts or NASA guys coming to my elementary school in the 70’s, so I assume they showed us some. I also visited cape Kennedy several times when it still had TONS of displays, interactive stuff, capsules that you can get in and flip all the switches etc. The reason I think I don’t remember is I didn’t see the absolute grandeur of what I was seeing and doing. In the 70’s we kids were inundated with space stuff and our parents wanted us to know it was important…I hated stuff that was important to my parents, as kids do. Also, every time we heard about space, it was never just adults saying “hey this is cool” it was " hey this is cool, and here’s a pop quiz about space and study hard and eat your vegetables":smack: ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959/10 "2017-10-27T09:43:18Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > The whole moon is just one big rock (at the level of granularity visible from Earth anyway), Naah, it’s at least 2, one can easily visually distinguish between the [anorthositic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anorthosite) _terrae_ and the [basaltic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basalt) _maria_. There’s a whole pareidolic [legendarium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_in_the_Moon) based around this visual petrographic distinction. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959/11 "2017-10-27T10:32:56Z")
I have seen one at the Smithsonian. I know I have seen another one and possibly a few more but I can’t quite place them. I have been to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and to Space Camp in Huntsville, AL. One or both of them had them as well. I remember thinking at the time that they were just rocks because I was a young teenager but I understand a little better now. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959/12 "2017-10-27T10:59:32Z")
Just the one lunar meteorite specimen I have in my collection. ([You, too, can see one that way](http://www.meteoritemarket.com/).) ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959/13 "2017-10-27T11:24:54Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Just the one lunar meteorite specimen I have in my collection. ([You, too, can see one that way](http://www.meteoritemarket.com/).) Well shit, we wasted a lot of money going to get some. It would have been a lot easier just to let them come to us. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959/14 "2017-10-27T11:41:57Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Well shit, we wasted a lot of money going to get some. It would have been a lot easier just to let them come to us. You can also buy pieces of Mars and the asteroid Vesta. And hundreds of other asteroids, just few sources known by name. (One of the possibly named ones is [Tagish Lake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagish_Lake_%28meteorite%29), very primitive and once speculated to be from a comet.) ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959/15 "2017-10-27T12:06:01Z")
A fair number… displays at Cape Kennedy for the most part. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959/16 "2017-10-27T12:42:25Z")
Probably the one at the Smithsonian (visited Air & Space several times, but don’t remember it specifically) and the one in the [National Cathedral](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/space-window-at-the-washington-national-cathedral), also in DC. So, two. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959/17 "2017-10-27T13:50:13Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Here on Earth, two. One in the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto, and the other in the Smithsonian, in Washington DC. That’s my answer exactly. Are you sure you’re not me? ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959/18 "2017-10-27T14:03:02Z")
I’ve been to a lot of aerospace museums, so I’d guess I’ve seen perhaps five or six. One was at the Deke Slayton Museum in Wisconsin, and being the jerk I am, I couldn’t resist correcting them when I noticed their rock was labeled wrong. No way did they have the actual “Genesis Rock” from Apollo 15 there. It wasn’t even an anorthosite, as I recall. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959/19 "2017-10-27T14:54:01Z")
One that was on display at the Carnegie Museum for a while. I don’t know if it had been given to them for their collection or was just on loan. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959/20 "2017-10-27T14:57:53Z")
I think I’ve seen about three Apollo moon rocks. Right after they were put on exhibit, there were lines out the museum doors to see the things. I think there was one I saw at the American Museum of Natural History that way. Years later, when I was at the University of Utah, they had one on permanent exhibit at the University Museum, which I never saw anyone look at. _Sic Transit Gloria Luna_. I’m pretty sure I saw one at the Smithsonian. I have probably seen others elsewhere. I must have seen the one at the Museum of Science in Boston, but don’t have a conscious memory of it. According to their site, the American Museum has four, more than anyplace else except the Smithsonian [https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/rose-center-for-earth-and-space/dorothy-and-lewis-b.-cullman-hall-of-the-universe/the-moon/moon-rock](https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/rose-center-for-earth-and-space/dorothy-and-lewis-b.-cullman-hall-of-the-universe/the-moon/moon-rock) Here’s listing of all of them at various museums: [List of Apollo lunar sample displays - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apollo_lunar_sample_displays) (That site doesn’t list the one at the University of Utah, but does list one at the Clark Planetarium in SLC, which was built since I left. Maybe they moved it there) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-moon-rocks-have-you-seen/799959.md?page=2)