Yeah, you read the title right. An ancient rock from our planet was recovered from the Moon.
The 20-pound lunar sample designated 14321, also known as "Big Bertha," was the third-largest rock returned from the Moon. Astronauts Alan Shepard and Ed Mitchell found it near the rim of Cone Crater during their second Apollo 14 Moonwalk.
Jeremy Bellucci from the Swedish Museum of Natural History and his colleagues have found something extraordinary in a rock collected from the Moon’s surface by Apollo astronauts almost half a century ago.
The team reported in the recent issue of Earth and Planetary Science Letters, that Apollo sample 14321 (collected during the Apollo 14 mission in 1971) is most likely from Earth but was thrown up by a meteorite impact about 4 billion years ago and eventually landed on the moon.
If this is proven then “Big Bertha” wouldn’t only be the first meteorite from Earth recovered on another planetary body, but also the oldest terrestrial rocks found to date.
Image: NASA
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Do not some theories have half the moon originating from earth?
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Forgive the pun but the fact the Apollo astronauts chose that rock to bring home was truly astronomical. I mean how many rocks were on the moon and to chose one that was a meteorite from Earth is pretty astounding.
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