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

[lovuian]

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

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

[BlueJazz]

1. That needs to be fixed. Soon. America looks like a bad-guy anyway without this type of press.

[KamaAina]

2. So will you be going up there to fetch a real one for the Dutch?

[BlueJazz]

8. I COULD get a better fake.

[aksptth]

3. An Idea!

Going to list Dutch Moon Rock on eBay!

[virtualobserver]

4. proof of ancient trees on the moon....or.....

the moon landings were faked?

[Herman4747]

5. This is Embarrassing

[Oneironaut]

6. is it from the studio where they filmed the moon landing?

Just kidding. This will make moon CTers happy, though. Lol

[virtualobserver]

10. from the filming on the forest moon of Endor

[lovuian]

7. Just to be fair to Buzz and Neil

I've read it was the US ambassador who gave it to the Dutch prime minister
but really petrified wood....and this is an old article....but it says a lot about the Nixon years

[GeeNeeUs]

9. Ummmm hmmmmm

[Hugin]

14. Yeah, the headline is misleading. The rock was given by Amb Middendorf.

Armstrong and Aldrin had nothing to do with the rock or the gift.

And it has been known to be a fake for years.

Slow news day at the Telegraph?

[pinboy3niner]

16. I wonder if Ambassador Middendorf left a rock collecion to his heirs

[Hugin]

20. Maybe even a Classic Rock collection.

Preferably, before the disco era.

[jberryhill]

36. That's an ingenious sentiment

[ryan_cats]

40. Even igneous.

[jberryhill]

43. An igneous sediment indeed

[ryan_cats]

45. You sediment has become self aware.

You sediment has become self aware.
It's sentient.

[Maedhros]

23. I can tell it's fake just by looking at this picture on the Internet.

It's oxidized.

[zappaman]

11. Of course its fake

We never went to the moon.
Read Dark Moon: Apollo and the Whistle-Blowers by Mary Bennett and David Percy.

Unreal that is is 2015 and people don't know about this fakery.

[snooper2]

12. I can't believe people still think the earth is a sphere, it is obviously flat

people just blindly believe shit-


Everyone should watch this!

[zappaman]

15. I have been a member of The Flat Earth Society for over 20 years.

Please consider joining and donating.

http://www.tfes.org

[Oneironaut]

17. The moon is made of cheese

The government is trying to hoard all of that delicious cheese for themselves. Those jerks...

[Donald Ian Rankin]

18. Well, Holland is already famed for its cheeses. N.T.

[Iggo]

25. That's how they knew it was fake.

[pinboy3niner]

32. One glance and they knew it wasn't gouda nuff

[matt819]

13. The article observes that everyone seems to be amused by this

Maybe so. But it really is offensive to think that the gift of lunar rock was bogus. Kind of representative of the US in 2015.

[jberryhill]

26. And your reason for believing that the gift rock was fake is....?

It is entirely possible that the current fake rock is not the rock that was given as a gift.

Perhaps someone stole the gift rock and replaced it.

[matt819]

38. Point taken

I jumped to conclusions. Whoops.

[Blue_Tires]

19. Who the hell thought that was real?

Both the color and texture are WAY off

[DFW]

21. A geologist who took 30 years to recognize a piece of petrified wood?

Sounds like he's in the wrong line of work. I'D recognize a piece of petrified wood, fer Pete's sake!

[jberryhill]

29. ...or the rock was stolen and replaced with a fake.

I find it amusing that the assumption here is that the original rock was fake, merely because the present rock is fake.

As if no one ever stole something and replaced it with a fake.

Absent some indication that the present rock is the same rock that was originally given, there is no reason to conclude that the original gift was a fake rock.

[DFW]

34. That's a reasonable enough scenario

Museums get robbed by their employees all the time. The ironic thing is, the real moon rocks look like nothing at all to the untrained eye, and so wouldn't be readily salable for a big number on the open market without an ironclad pedigree, which you won't ever get for a stolen object. Of course, if the old switcheroo was made by an knowledgeable geologist from the museum who wanted it for himself, they can be thankful if the guy names the museum as the designated heir in his will.

[kairos12]

22. Rock taken from the floor of Walter Kronkite's garage. Everyone knows this.

[struggle4progress]

24. The story says former US ambassador J. William Middendorf gave it to

former Dutch leader Willem Drees, and that after the death of Drees, the rock was donated to Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. But the account seems somehow garbled, since the Telegraph's secondary headline says A moon rock given to the Dutch prime minister by Apollo 11 astronauts in 1969 has turned out to be a fake

The Apollo world tour occurred in 1969: From September 29 through November 5, 1969 the astronauts and their wives made landings in 24 worldwide cities with mostly overnight visits. John William Middendorf II had a career as an investment banker, before serving the RNC 1965-1969 and becoming US ambassador to the Netherlands from July 1969 until June 1973 under Nixon

But Drees was not Prime Minister then: Piet de Jong was. Willem Drees Sr (1886-1988) was Prime Minister of the Netherlands from August 1948 until December 1958; by the time of the moon landing he was in his eighties and had retired from politics. His son Willem Drees Jr (1922 – 1998) seems to have been active in politics from about 1970 until 1977, serving as Minister of Transport and Water Management in the early 1970s and then as Parliamentary leader of the House of Representatives for several years; and the grandson Willem Bernard Drees is not a politician

[Warpy]

27. The question is when it was switched and by whom

and which 0.1% pig has it in his private collection he takes out and looks at to feel like he's on the top of the dungheap.

[jberryhill]

30. Precisely

I'm surprised at how many people leap to the conclusion that the rock has always been fake, and exclude the possibility of the original rock having been stolen.

[SwankyXomb]

28. Wow, my moon is completely bombed!

Er, that is, my mind is completely blown!

[stevenleser]

31. Whats interesting is that 100 pieces of moon rock were supposedly given to countries.

I am not sure the lunar lander could have taken off with that much added weight. I could be wrong but it doesnt seem like a good idea to load up the lander with a whole bunch of large rocks, even though they weigh so much less on the moon.

[struggle4progress]

35. Those samples are rice-grain sized pieces enclosed in plastic buttons

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_lunar_sample_displays

[Kaleva]

33. We could chip in and send Holland a Shamwow.

[jberryhill]

37. They'd probably appreciate anything that soaks up water

[aksptth]

39. Or some Gremlins

They like water too.

[Omaha Steve]

41. Oh geez

[IDemo]

42. Aldrin lives, or did, not far from the Craters of the Moon

I'm sure he could replace the rock.

[MisterP]

44. the Moon Crucifixion was faked!