Pupils from Aquinas got their hands on rare samples of moon rocks and meteorites in January this year during a series of lessons which were truly out of this world!

Students were given the unique opportunity to touch a piece of space rock not of this Earth as they were allowed to handle genuine meteorites.

These samples were provided by the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council. Samples included a 1.2 billion-year-old piece of Martian rock and a 4.3 billion-year old nickel meteorite. It is unlikely that they will ever get a chance to hold an object older than this, as the Earth itself was formed 4.6 billion years ago.

The lunar samples were collected in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s during NASA’s Apollo missions to the Moon. During these missions a staggering 382kg of material was brought back to Earth – mostly for use by scientists, but small quantities are used as educational resources.