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Learn about Moon rocks
The video below explains how to view Moon rocks under a Virtual Microscope and what we can discover.
How to use the Virtual Microscope
Click on the options below to learn how you can examine the Moon rocks from the first Moon landing.
You can magnify the microscope image by using the slider at the bottom of the screen (shown to the right); by double clicking with a mouse or touchscreen; or by using the pinch–zoom on a touchscreen.
You can also move around the sample by clicking on the image and dragging it.
Click on the boxes at bottom left of the screen (shown to the right) to view the samples under three different lighting conditions:
1. Plane polarised light (PPL – light vibrating along a single plane)
2. Between crossed polars (XPL – the light emerging from the minerals is forced to vibrate along a perpendicular direction to that in PPL)
3. Reflected light (REF – when light is simply reflected off the surface of the thin section. This is particularly useful to study minerals that do not allow light to pass through, such as ilmenite and sulphides in lunar samples).
Click on a hot spot, like the one illustrated to see two circular views, one in PPL and the other in XPL. The views can be rotated by clicking on either image and dragging in a circular movement. The ability to rotate a thin section of Moon rock, helps us identify the minerals in it.
Click on the measure tool box at the bottom right of the screen (shown in the image to the right) to determine the dimensions of any mineral or feature in the Moon rock sample.
When the measure box is ticked, click at one end of the mineral or feature to be measured and drag to the alternate end. Please note, when the measure box is ticked the pan and zoom features are disabled. To deactivate the measure tool, click on the measure box again.
Moon rocks from Apollo 11
10044 - Ilmenite basalt
Sample 10044 is a grey-white, medium to coarse grained ilmenite basalt. It is roughly 3.7 billion years old and weighs 248 grams, which is equivalent to a standard A4 magazine. View the Virtual Microscope of 10044.
10020 - Ilmenite basalt (low K)
This Moon rock is a variety of fine-grained ilmenite rich basalt. It is rounded and covered with micrometeorite craters. It crystallised 3.77 billion years ago and had been exposed at the surface for around 130 million years. View the Virtual Microscope of 10020.
10058 - Coarse grained ilmenite basalt
This Moon rock is 3.7 billion years old and has a distinctive cracking pattern. View the Virtual Microscope of 10058.
10072 - Vesicular basalt
Sample 10072 is a fine-grained vesicular basalt containing metallic iron and glass which crystallised 3.6 billion years ago. View the Virtual Microscope of 10072.
10063 - Regolith breccia
Sample 10063 contains a range of yellowish and orange glass fragments. You can see an orange glass bead in Rotation 1. The sample weighed 148 grams before analysis and has not been age dated. View the Virtual Microscope of 10063.
10046 - Basaltic regolith breccia
Sample 10046 is held together by a matrix of glass formed during a large meteorite impact. View the Virtual Microscope of 10046.
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