Aldrin: "Neal, didn't I say we might find some purple rocks?"

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Armstrong was now about to move the TV camera. "Find the purple rocks?" 51

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The moon rocks picked up by the astronauts and brought back to earth in 1969 have shed little light on the origin of the moon. One rock called the Genesis Rock has turned out to be 4.1 billion years old, roughly half a billion years older than any rock found on earth.

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A result of the study of the rocks has been that scientists have gone back to an early hypothesis about the origin of the solar system which held that all the planets were first molten bodies of rock.

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Analysis of the moon rocks has shown that the chemistry was different, proving that the moon did not

come from the earth. But it didn't suggest any alternatives.

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The man in the moon ain't talkin'!

51. Ryan, Peter. The Invasion of the Moon. 1969. Penguin Books, London, 1969, p. 125