Alright students. Let’s kick off the new school year with a spot quiz! Kids, what grows on the moon? Yes, Tina? Nothing? You’re correct! Nothing grows on the moon. So how come no one at Amsterdam’s national Rijksmuseum noticed until recently that the chunk of “moon rock” it has on display is actually petrified wood with distinct wood grain and everything?
Supposedly brought back to Earth by Apollo 11 astronauts, the object in question was allegedly presented to the Prime Minister of the Netherlands at the time, Willem Drees in 1969. The museum received the mineralized hunk of prehistoric tree upon Mr. Drees’ passing in 1988.
Needless to say, the curators at the Rijksmuseum are a bit red-faced at the gaffe. So now the question is, did our State Department pull a fast one when the stone was gifted? Were the astronauts holding back on the real stuff and slipped in a substitute thinking no one would notice? (If so, then it appears that the ruse worked for over 30 years.) Or was the moon at some point capable of sustaining life, hence the discovery of a “moon tree.” And if the moon did support life at one point, what the hell happened?!
And FYI, NASA has a display of simulated moon rocks that you can borrow for use in your classroom. The Rijksmuseum is probably going to yank their moon page from their website, so here’s a flyer that was snagged from the site…just to prove that the hoax really was on exhibition.
