This Throwback Thursday, let’s celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing! About three months after Apollo 11 returned to Earth, in November 1969, the Museum received a special delivery from NASA: a glass dome filled with nitrogen,...

This Throwback Thursday, let’s celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing! About three months after Apollo 11 returned to Earth, in November 1969, the Museum received a special delivery from NASA: a glass dome filled with nitrogen, with a lunar rock inside. According to The New York Times, the timing of the arrival hadn’t been shared with the Museum, and when the specimen was delivered on Saturday morning, a makeshift display case had to be arranged! The following day, “a tiny piece of the Moon drew the largest crowd in the 100-year history of the American Museum of Natural History,” the paper reported: 42,195 people, or three times the size of the regular Sunday crowd. The Museum soon organized a more elaborate display case with educational materials and magnifying glasses for the Moon rock’s two-and-a-half month stay (as seen below). Today, the Museum is home to four Moon rocks collected during the Apollo lunar missions, though none from Apollo 11. See them at our SpaceFest event on July 20—free with Museum admission! #AMNH150
Photo: © AMNH (at American Museum of Natural History)
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0D-wydgF1k/?igshid=20g8yfj7u64r

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