''Moon rock' given to Holland by Armstrong, Aldrin just 'petrified wood'.Byline: ANI London, Aug 29 (ANI): A piece of rock from the moon which Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin aldrin (ôl`drĭn): see insecticides. had gifted to Holland is claimed to be fake. Curators at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum say that the "lunar rock", valued at 308,000 pounds, is in fact just a petrified wood petrified wood Fossil formed by the infiltration of minerals into cavities between and within cells of natural wood, usually by silica (silicon dioxide, SiO2) or calcite (calcium carbonate, CaCO3). . "It's a good story, with some questions that are still unanswered. We can laugh about it," the Telegraph quoted Xandra van Gelder, who oversaw the investigation as saying. In fact, researchers at Amsterdam's Free University knew it wasn't moon rock at the first look. They say that their speculation was later confirmed by tests. Frank Beunk, a geologist involved in the investigation: "It's a nondescript non·de·script adj. Lacking distinctive qualities; having no individual character or form: "This expression gave temporary meaning to a set of features otherwise nondescript" , pretty-much-worthless stone." Now, the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. Embassy in The Hague is carrying out an investigation into the affair. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Aldrin had given the rock to Willem Drees, a former Dutch leader, during a global tour after their landing in moon almost 50 years ago. It is one of the moon rocks given to more than 100 countries following lunar missions in 1969 and the 1970s. Former American ambassador to the Netherlands J. William Middendorf had presented it to Drees, which was donated to the Rijksmuseum after his death in 1988. Middendorf said: "I do remember that Drees was very interested in the little piece of stone. But that it's not real, I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. anything about that." (ANI) Copyright 2009 Asian News International The Asian News International (ANI) agency provides multimedia news to China and 50 bureaus in India. It covers virtually all of South Asia since its foundation and presently claims, on its official website, to be the leading South Asia-wide news agency. (ANI) - All Rights Reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |
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