Moon rock at Dutch museum is just petrified wood - Claimed from U.S Astronauts

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CBCnews.CA (Canadian Broadcasting Company)
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/08/28/dutch-moon-rock-fake-petrified-wood.html

Last Updated: Friday, August 28, 2009 | 9:04 PM ET Comments33Recommend17
CBC News

Donated to the Netherlands by U.S. astronauts, this hunk of
what we now know is petrified wood was billed a "moonrock" and
considered a great gift to the fun loving Dutch.

A purported moon rock given to the Dutch government to commemorate the first manned lunar landing in 1969 has turned out to be only a chunk of petrified wood.

The Dutch national museum says one of its prized possessions, a rock supposedly brought back from the moon by U.S. astronauts, is just a piece of petrified wood. (Rijksmuseum/Associated Press)The Dutch national museum says one of its prized possessions, a rock supposedly brought back from the moon by U.S. astronauts, is just a piece of petrified wood. (Rijksmuseum/Associated Press) The Netherlands' Rijksmuseum said this week that the object was originally given to former Dutch prime minister Willem Drees in October 1969 by J. William Middendorf, a former U.S. ambassador to the country, during a tour by the three Apollo 11 astronauts.

The piece was given to the museum when Drees died in 1988, although it was seldom put on display.

During a showing in 2006, a space expert told the Rijksmuseum it was unlikely that NASA would have handed out moon rocks so shortly after Apollo returned to Earth.


DAILY TELEGRAPH
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/6105902/Moon-rock-given-to-Holland-by-Neil-Armstrong-and-Buzz-Aldrin-is-fake.html

'Moon rock' given to Holland by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin is fake

A moon rock given to the Dutch prime minister by Apollo 11 astronauts in 1969 has turned out to be a fake

Curators at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, where the rock has attracted tens of thousands of visitors each year, discovered that the "lunar rock", valued at £308,000, was in fact petrified wood.

Xandra van Gelder, who oversaw the investigation, said the museum would continue to keep the stone as a curiosity.

"It's a good story, with some questions that are still unanswered," she said. "We can laugh about it."

The rock was given to Willem Drees, a former Dutch leader, during a global tour by Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin following their moon mission 50 years ago.

[Motown_Johnny]

1. Ancient Trees On The Moon!!! kewl

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. I like your perspective!!!

You're of the "There must be a pony!" school, an attitude I've always admired.

My best friend from Chicago - we met in a law school class - just became Obama's Ambassador to The Kingdom Of The Netherlands. I'm going to have to email her and find out if she's interested in buying a nice bit of beachfront property that's currently situated in Colorado.............................

[autorank]

5. Stem Beach, CO

Looks like a good deal.

Stem Beach CO Stem Beach is a community or populated place (Class Code U6) located in Pueblo County at latitude 38.164 and longitude -104.644

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3. Discussion in my family room

I read the headline and story with no comment.

Person 1 - "Of course it's a fake, we never went to the moon."

Person 2 - "There's a logical explanation. It could have been replaced, stolen with a substitute
left behind."

I'm saying nothing :popcorn:

[FourScore]

4. LOL.

Yeah. I think I'd keep quiet too.

[autorank]

7. The discussion has not turned to cats

I'm in the clear

:fistbump:

[obliviously]

6. No those are pieces of the ship that

the first viking explorers took their!

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8. OK, got it. "THE NETHERLANDS: The Queen & the Saucers" Time Mag. 1959

This queen was out there. Maybe this was an inside joke by the astronauts. 'Yeah, give those
Dutch a piece of petrified wood and call it a moon rock. Look at their Queen.' But then again,
Why is it a fake? Was the real rock stolen? Was there ever a rock?

THE NETHERLANDS: The Queen & the Saucers
Monday, Jun. 01, 1959

"In the past," grumbled Amsterdam's De Volkskrant, "the Dutch press was blamed—and not entirely without reason —for too long concealing the fact that there swarmed about the court people whose heads were too much in the clouds." The Dutch press could hardly be accused of concealing the facts last week. Once again, Queen Juliana's weakness for the preternatural had landed her back in the headlines: she had invited to the palace a crackpot from California who numbered among his friends men from Mars, Venus and other solar-system suburbs. Both court and Cabinet pleaded, but the Queen would not be budged. "A hostess," said she in refusing to cancel the audience, "cannot slam the door in the face of her guests."

The guest in question was Polish-born George Adamski, 68, who until several years ago ran a humble hamburger stand at the foot of California's Palomar mountain. Then one day he happened to meet a courteous and high-domed gentleman, and the gentleman was from the planet Venus. One thing led to another, and some time later a man from Mars and another from Saturn asked him in a hotel lobby if he would like to take a spin in space. The trip aloft included refreshments ("a small glass of colorless liquid") with an "incredibly lovely" blonde named Kalna and an equally lovely brunette named Ilmuth. It ended with a reassuring lecture up there from a great teacher ("No, my son, your world is not the lowest in development in the universe"). Thereafter, space-traveling George styled himself "philosopher, teacher, student and saucer researcher."

[puebloknot]

9. I worked at JPL for a time, and was given a personal tour ...

... of their moon landing display area. Behind a glass enclosure were some moon rocks and the device they used to pick them up off the moon's surface. It was out of my mouth before I could think: "That looks kind of like a pooper-scooper."

My boss was dismayed that I didn't seem to appreciate the historical value of what I was seeing. "We had to improvise, and we did the best we could," he said to me. (I didn't get a raise that year.)

Now .... I'm starting to wonder????? Could it be that .... Nah! Couldn't be!

[puebloknot]

10. Hey, Michael Collins ...

... you're not *that* Michael Collins are you?

(Not *that* Michael Collins of NASA fame, I mean. Not *not* that Michael Collins of "The Troubles" in circa 1920, Ireland.)

[Vinca]

11. They better watch ebay for the real moon rock.

I'm betting someone did a switch on Drees.